


My Candle in the Dark

by acaciapines



Series: pokémon mystery dungeon: taz edition [1]
Category: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Explorers of Darkness & Explorers of Sky, The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, if you played explorers of sky you know how this story goes, the crossover that literally only i wanted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-05-07 20:19:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 59,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19216804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acaciapines/pseuds/acaciapines
Summary: Lup wakes up on a beach with no memories of how she got there, and also, as a Vulpix. Which is a problem, because she's almost certain she's human. With her new friend, a Duskull named Barry, maybe she can figure out just what happened to her, and save the world while she's at it.





	1. A Storm at Sea

She wakes up cold and wet and blurry-eyed, none of which are things she likes. She’s… somewhere? Her vision is swimming too much to make out the surroundings, and all she can hear is the pounding thud of blood roaring in her ears. Everything _hurts,_ too, like a terrible headache behind her eyes, except all over her entire body.

She struggles to get to her feet, but they collapse under her and she’s back on the ground. Sand? It’s small and grainy and yes, that’s sand. She knows what sand is! What else does she know?

Not why she’s here. Not what happened to her, though she can guess she was hurt pretty badly based on the pain. She was…with…someone? But there’s nobody else around, so who…?

A stab of pain and her vision goes white, and she whimpers low in her throat.

The next thing she’s aware of is a voice, coming from somewhere above her, and she forces her eyes open to see who it is. A…Pokémon? They’re floating, mainly red with a skull, and their eye is looking worriedly at her. Their hands? Maybe? They’re more like sleeves of a cloak. Are fluttering over her still-collapsed body, like they’re trying to help.

“Are you okay?” they ask, and she shakes her head, groaning, but she finds that she’s a bit stronger, and struggles to her feet. Everything feels…compacted. Something’s up. “I saw you passed out in the sand; I was worried!”

“Who…” she shakes herself in some attempt to clear her thoughts, but that just worsens her headache, and she stumbles against the Pokémon—a Duskull, she thinks—who keeps her steady. “Where am I?”

“The beach off Treasure Town,” Duskull says. “Do you need help? There’s a healer at the guild I could take you to.”

“Treasure Town? Guild?” None of these are things she knows, and looking around, she doesn’t recognize this beach. She’s never been here. Why is she here now? And why is everything…she’s moving differently than she should, and she’s about eye-level with Duskull, and that’s not…she’s taller than most Pokémon. “I think…can you take me to a doctor? I want to talk to a human person.”

“A human?” Duskull asks. “That’s going to be pretty tricky. There aren’t any on this continent. I’ve never even seen one!”

“Wait, what does that—” she cuts herself off and inches over to the edge of the beach, to peer at her reflection in the waves, and. That’s not her face. She doesn’t remember what she looks like fully, but she’s a human! And the face staring back at her, well, it’s a Vulpix!

“I’m a human,” she says, stumbling backwards, as Duskull floats over to her side.

“You look like a Vulpix to me,” Duskull says. “I really think you need to see a healer. You might have some sort of head trauma.”

“My head hurts a lot so like, you are right, but I’m not crazy,” she says. “I wasn’t…I don’t remember anything! But I know I wasn’t a Vulpix before this.” She sits back, feels her tails—tails!!—splay out behind her. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Okay,” Duskull says, “I believe you. This would be a pretty wild thing to lie about.” They float next to her, hover over the sand like they’re sitting. “What’s your name? I’m Barry.”

A name? Does she…

_Lup, don’t—fuck!_

A voice. Not hers, and a quick glance at Duskull, or, Barry, he said, shows he didn’t hear it, so it probably wasn’t anyone nearby. A memory? Lup…fits. She likes it.

“I’m Lup,” she says, shaking out her sodden fur. The name settles around her like a comforting blanket. That’s one thing in the basket of ‘stuff she remembers.’ Everything else is a big mystery. “I don’t know why or how I’m here, or why I’m a Vulpix now.”

“I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to help with that,” Barry says, “but I think your best bet would be to go to the guild. You still seem hurt, so a healer might be nice, and there’s Pokémon there that might know about…I guess you have amnesia?”

“Seems like it,” Lup says, sighing. “Are you from the guild?”

“Oh! No, I just, uh, know a lot about it,” Barry says, laughing a little awkwardly. “It’s pretty big in town, and I’m friendly with some of the apprentices. You want me to show you there? It’s safer to travel together, especially if you’re hurt…there’s a lot more bad Pokémon out and about, these days.”

“Thanks, Barry,” Lup says, and he offers a hand for her. She takes it, stumbles to her feet, and her vision blurs black for a second. A healer would be nice. She’s doing pretty shitty, right now. “I’ll take you up on that.”

“It’s not too far a walk, but there are a few stairs,” Barry says, as Lup takes a deep breath to steady herself. “I co—”

And that’s as far as he’s able to get before something slams into him, and he slams into Lup, and the two of them are thrown back. Lup hits her head against a rock, and yelps, rolling back to her paws and doing her best not to instantly fall, trying to get eyesight on whoever attacked them. She sees Barry, also slumped over, and moves to his side to help him up, before turning to glare at the two Pokémon who attacked them: an Ariados and a Spinarak.

“Ow…” Barry mutters, but he seems better off than her and gets back up quickly. “Hey! What was that about!”

Lup feels burning rage in her gut. First, she almost dies on a beach, and then some bullies try to attack the Pokémon who helped her? She’s had e-fucking-nough. She’s a Vulpix, she can do, like, fire, right? She pulls up fire and spits an ember in the direction of Ariados, but it’s weak and saps almost all the energy from her, and Barry has to steady her. To add insult to injury, it doesn’t even hit.

“That’s cute,” Ariados says.

“Yeah, real cute!” Spinarak chimes in, and their voice is a lot higher pitched. Lup snarls and the motion of baring her teeth and brandishing her tails out behind her to look more imposing is almost enough to knock her over, and would’ve, if she didn’t just stumble more into Barry. A real scary sight, the two of them are.

“But we’re not here for you,” Ariados continues, “we’re here for this nerd’s little treasure.”

“I am _older_ than you!” Barry protests, “and what do you even mean, treasure, I don’t—”

He notices it the same time Lup does. There, out on the sand, is a small rock. It’s got jagged edges, and looks rather old. Barry goes to grab it, but Lup almost collapses and the Ariados gets there first.

“Give that back,” Barry says. There’s no trace of anything in his voice, just cold detachment. Both the bullies laugh.

“How about no!” Ariados says, cackling. “You obviously aren’t fighting us for it, and your friend there looks like even Lil’ Jerry could take them down with the most basic of attacks!”

“Yeah!” adds Spinarak—Lil’ Jerry?—but then he looks at Ariados. “Wait, what was that last thing you said?”

Ariados ignores him. “Nice talking to you two,” they say, “thanks for the treasure.”

And just like that, the two Pokémon stroll past them and into the cave at the end of the beach. Barry sighs, and helps Lup sit down.

“Sorry I wasn’t much help,” Lup says, her ears flattening, “but thanks for not letting me fall into the sand again. Are those the bad Pokémon you were talking about?”

“Some of them,” Barry says, “and don’t blame yourself, even if I was alone…I’m not the greatest in situations like these. If you weren’t here, I would’ve just made a fool of myself.”

Lup nods. “Well, good thing there’s two of us,” she says, “that makes it a fair fight.”

“Lup?” Barry asks.

“We’re getting your treasure back, right?” she says, and almost instantly falls face-first into the sand. Fuck. She struggles back to her paws. Everything hurts, it’s fucking awful, but this is partly her fault and she’d feel shitty if she just left Barry. “They went into that cave; we can just follow them.”

“You’re still hurt,” Barry says, sounding worried as he floats around her. “I appreciate the offer, but I don’t want you passing out again.”

“I’ll be fine,” Lup says, tucking one of her paws close to her body when putting weight on it sends a flare of pain up her left forepaw. “I’m strong.”

“I don’t doubt you, but you’re also very hurt,” Barry says. He floats around her, blocking the way to the cave, though Lup could just walk around him if she really wanted to. At least, she could try—she’s not sure she’s able to walk without support, right now.

“Well, if we go find someone to heal me up, those Pokémon are gonna be gone by the time we get back,” Lup says. “Again, I’ll be fine. I know myself. Well, somewhat. Don’t you want to get your treasure back?”

“I do, but I don’t want you to get hurt again…” Barry sighs. “Okay, let me just…I was saving this for lunch, but if we’re doing this, then you need it more than me.” He pulls out half a berry, and places it in front of her. Lup sniffs it. It’s blue, and smells rather sweet.

She looks up at him and tilts her head.

“It’s an Oran Berry,” he says, “it should heal you, at least a little.”

Lup nips at the berry. It tastes pretty good, and she quickly devours the whole thing. Sure enough, she feels stronger on her feet, and the worst of her headache dies down. She tries walking, and finds that she doesn’t trip, not even once.

“Thanks, Barry!” she says, and his eye crinkles up in a smile. “Now, to go get your treasure back!”

He laughs, a little. “Hopefully,” he says, but he sounds excited as well, floating after Lup as she trots into the cave. It’s dark, but not enough that Lup can’t see anything, and she takes the lead as they prowl around for the bullies.

“So, what do you know about them?” Lup asks, snapping at a Shellos that comes a little too close for comfort. It scurries off, and Lup tosses her head. Shows them.

“Well, the Ariados is Jerreee, and the Spinarak is Lil’ Jerry,” Barry says, floating upwards so Lup can spit an ember at the same Shellos that decided to, for some reason, show its face again. Barry follows her attack with a blur of purple that radiates out and hits the Shellos, which glares at them before disappearing into the puddles of seawater that litter the cave.

“Are they related?” Lup asks.

“They might be brothers, but I’ve never asked,” Barry says, “they’re part of this gang called The Hammerheads. They have a leader, named Maarvey, who’s a bit smarter, and more powerful. It’s good he’s not here. He’s a Sharpedo.”

“Oh, yeah, no thanks,” Lup says. Her fur is still a bit wet from the ocean, she doesn’t want to get into a fight with a water-type Pokémon that hates her new friend for some reason. “Is there any reason why they’re picking on you?”

“I’m weak?” Barry says, and he gives the impression of a shrug—the ‘hands’ on the side of the cape that is the majority of his body quickly rise up and down. “I don’t know. I think they just target anybody who’s alone, or, in our case, both weak and very hurt.”

“Hey, you don’t seem weak,” Lup says, “you seem pretty cool. I mean, I have only known you for like an hour, but you did keep me from dying on a beach, and you believe me, so like.”

“Thanks, Lup,” Barry says. “That’s…thanks.”

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Lup comments, “if we’re gonna get back your treasure, and we will, we don’t wanna have any doubt that those bullies can use to their advantage. Gotta go at them with all we got, and such.”

They continue their way down the cave, snapping at any Pokémon who try to attack them. It’s weird. Lup’s done nothing but walk in a cave, and she’s got Pokémon trying to attack her? Maybe it has something to do with what Barry was talking about, with an increase in bad Pokémon. But eventually, they reach the end of the cave, where Jerreee and Lil’ Jerry are both waiting.

“Shitty escape plan you’ve got,” Lup calls as she enters the room, standing proud. “Running into a cave with only the one exit.”

Barry hovers next to her, and while he doesn’t say anything, she can feel a bit of nervous energy radiating off of him. She brushes against him and projects her confidence a bit more, her tails curled tall over her back.

“Oh, look,” Jerreee says, “the wimp and his half-dead friend have decided to come face us.” He laughs, and Lup bares her teeth in a snarl. Half-dead! She’s obviously better than she was on the beach, and Ariados has the audacity to call her half-dead?

“Look,” Barry says, “just give me back my treasure, and we don’t have to fight.”

“Hmm,” Jerreee says, “what do you think, Lil’ Jerry? Should we just give up?”

“No, no!” Lil’ Jerry says, and he plucks Barry’s rock off of his back, holding it out. “This thing might be valuable!”

“Fine, then,” Lup says, and she poses to spring, building up flames in her jaws to spit at the spiders opposing them. “You want a fight?” She glances to Barry, who gives a little nod, before turning her attention back to the two spiders. “Then you have one.”

She launches for Lil’ Jerry, hitting him with her ember, and good, good, Barry’s right behind her, attacking with that purple glow. They had the same idea—attack him and try to snatch Barry’s rock. But before she can, she’s knocked out of the way by Jerreee, and is wrapped so tight in webbing that she can barely breathe, much less burn it away with fire. She coughs, and struggles to free herself.

“Lup!” Barry yells, and he lunges at Jerreee. Lup catches a glimpse of him, and he looks kinda scary, how his eye is glowing a faint red, and Jerreee seems to think the same, because he flinches and Barry’s able to get a good hit in on him. The surprise is enough for the webs constricting Lup to slack, and she bursts out in a flare of heat.

“Thanks,” she says, and she tackles Jerreee, because fuck him, seriously. She spits an ember directly in his face, and he stumbles backwards again, obviously weakened. “And you,” she says, risking a glance behind her to make sure Barry’s doing okay, and he is, he’s got Lil’ Jerry pinned against the back wall, “give up now, or I’ll knock you out and steal Barry’s treasure back myself.”

“Who the hell are you?” Jerreee asks, struggling to his eight feet. Lup snaps at him, herding him to the back wall that Lil’ Jerry is pinned against, and grins as she stands proud beside Barry.

“I’m Lup,” she says, and she catches sight of Barry’s rock clenched in one of Lil’ Jerry’s spindly legs. She motions to it with a flick of her ear, and spits another ember at that leg, enough so that he drops it. Barry swoops in, grabbing his rock, and is floating back to her before either Jerry can react.

“Thanks for this,” he says, and Lup laughs, bouncing a little on her paws. That was fun! And they won, so like, take that, Hammerheads!

“Bother us again and we won’t leave you standing,” Lup says.

Both Jerreee and Lil’ Jerry meet each other’s eyes, and scram.

* * *

“That worked so well!” Lup says, once they’re back on the beach, slapping her paws against the receding ocean waves in her excitement. “When you scared Jerreee so bad I was able to escape? Amazing! You actually looked scary, too!”

“You mean I don’t normally look scary?” Barry asks, and while there’s a bit of humor in his tone, there’s something else, too, and he won’t meet her gaze. Lup stops, and sits to watch the setting sun, patting the sand next to her. Barry floats over and hovers beside her.

It’s a pretty sight. The purples and pinks reflected in the water, bubbles that bob across the surface of the ocean…but Lup can’t focus on it, not when Barry is upset next to her.

“You aren’t scary,” she says, “I mean, the skull? The cape-body? The one eye? I love it!” She scratches her claws in the dirt to give them something to do, and tilts her head. “What, have Pokémon told you you’re scary?”

“The ghost thing can be a bit off-putting to some,” Barry says. Lup frowns.

“Well, those Pokémon are just being dumb. If anyone is ever telling you that you’re scary and you aren’t intentionally trying to be, let me know and I’ll…uh…help? I was going to say ‘beat them up’ but I don’t know if you want that.”

“Only beat them up if they’re actively being mean about it,” Barry offers, “but if they’re just a kid and are spooked for a second, leave them be.”

“Anything for my new friend,” Lup agrees, stretching out her paws. That messes up the nonsense she drew in the sand, but she barely notices.

“Friend?” Barry asks, and there’s something almost hopeful in his tone.

“Well, yeah,” Lup says, “you helped me, I helped you, and you seem cool. Speaking of, what did those bullies take from you? It looked like a rock to me, but they said it was valuable, so I can’t imagine it’s just your everyday rock.”

“It’s my Relic Fragment,” Barry says, and he takes it out, placing it on the sand in front of them. Lup peers at it. It’s ancient, she thinks, the edges of it all jagged, the rock underneath browner than that on top. It’s also got some sort of design etched into it in stark-white clawmarks. There’s a circle in the middle, with four curving swirls of lines coming out of it like a compass, and connected by wing-like bumps. “At least, that’s what I named it.”

“You named it?” Lup asks, running a paw over the design. It’s carved into the stone, and she traces a claw through the deeply-sunk-in lines.

“I found it when I was younger,” Barry says, “I don’t really remember where, but I’ve had it for as long as I can remember. It’s…is it okay if I get a little personal here?”

“No problem,” Lup says, and she turns all her attention to Barry, ears pricked and angled towards him.

“Thanks,” he says. He takes a deep breath, and settles on the sand next to her, his arms wrapped around the Relic Fragment. “All my life, I’ve been fascinated by adventure, by the idea of going off and finding unexplored lands, or old ruins of long-forgotten stories, and trying to piece together a mystery with just the scraps left behind. My Relic Fragment, it’s come to represent that for me. I don’t know anything about it, but I want to! I want to go figure out what it means, where it fits in! Where I fit in, maybe.”

He turns around, floating up a bit to the cliffs, and Lup follows his gaze. The beach ends at a cliff, but if she looks up and up and up, she can see, faintly, a building atop it, shaped like a Lugia with their wings outstretched, and illuminated by flames from both sides.

“That’s the guild,” Barry continues, and when Lup looks over to him, he’s got an excited glint in his eye. “The Pokémon there, they’re adventurers who go in search of all kinds of things: treasure, stories, new lands, anything you could think of! I really want to join, but…” he laughs, bitter. “I’m scared to. I tried earlier, and couldn’t work up the courage to do so.”

Barry falls silent. Lup hops up and brushes against him, a show of support, as an idea takes form in her head. “Well,” she starts, “you already know I lost my memory. And I’m not from here, I know that much, and I don’t really have anywhere to go, so…would it help if we joined the guild together?”

“Together?” Barry asks. He floats away from her, his cape-body fluttering with nerves. “Lup, I don’t want you to think you have to do this just because I’m sad about it. I don’t mind just helping you settle in. Adventuring can be dangerous.”

“I assumed,” Lup says. “I don’t have anything better to do, do I? And we worked together once, and I’ve enjoyed hanging out with you! And if this guild goes on adventures and finds new things, well, that seems like my best chance to figure out what happened to me. I doubt I’ll get my memory back just by sitting around.”

“You…you’re serious about this?” Barry asks, and when Lup nods, he takes a deep breath. “Okay, then. How the guild works, you can either join alone or join as a team. If you want to join alone and we’d just both be in the guild together, that’s fine, don’t feel like you have to do this to make me feel better. But if we’re both joining at the same time…do you want to join as an exploration team?”

“Hell yeah I do!” Lup says, balancing herself on her hind paws to try and high-five Barry despite him being higher than she can reach. He floats down to her level, and she manages to slap his hand with a paw before she wobbles and falls back to all fours. “I would’ve worked with you anyways. You’re the only person I know, and, obviously, the best one!”

“You know Jerreee and Lil’ Jerry,” Barry says, but his eye is crinkled up in a smile. He doesn’t have a face, really, since it’s just a skull that doesn’t really emote, but Lup finds it rather cute.

“Barry,” she says, and he laughs.

“I know, I know.” He looks back up to the guild, and floats off the opposite direction of the cave they just left. “Come on, the path to the guild is up here.”

Lup picks up the Relic Fragment, tucking it under her chin as she trots after Barry. She remembers pockets, from when she was a human. Nothing else, really, but damn does she miss pockets. How was Barry carrying this before, anyways? She didn’t see it on him at all.

“Oh!” Barry says, and he floats down to point at the Relic Fragment. Lup lets it drop to the ground, and he picks it up, tucking it into the folds of his cape. “Sorry, I forgot to grab it. Thanks for picking it up.”

“It’s fine,” Lup says, “though, if you forgot I had it, how haven’t you lost it before now? If you just leave it places, why didn’t those bullies take it then?”

“I’ve never left it before,” Barry says, “I guess I just…dunno. Assumed you’d carry it? Sorry, again. That was rude of me.”

Lup shrugs, and they continue on.

The ground changes from sand to a dirt path bordered on both sides by trees, winding up a hill and to, true to Barry’s word earlier, stairs. Lup’s a lot stronger than she was when she first woke up, though, so she makes it up the stairs with minimal pain. From there, they’re at a crossroads.

“Left heads to town, right out into the world, and the guild is up here,” Barry says, keeping forward. They climb yet another set of stairs, and then they’re at the guild. It’s a lot bigger than Lup assumed it would be, at the tip of the tallest cliff. The wings of the Lugia-shaped tent covering the entrance stretch almost to the edges of the cliff, and it’s bordered on either side by large torches, the source of the fire. In front of the gated-off entrance is a grate in the ground.

“We stand over this,” Barry explains, “and they have a sentry down there that’ll let us in.”

“Will they be up this late?” Lup asks, looking behind her to the setting sun, and Barry nods.

“They should be,” he says, “and even if they aren’t, I know the sentry. He’ll probably let us in, even if the guild is officially closed for the day.”

“Alright then,” Lup says, and before Barry can protest, she steps onto the grate.

“Pokémon detected!” yells a voice from down below, and Lup almost jumps, but manages to steel herself. She glances back to Barry, who nods, so she stays standing.

“Whose footprint?” asks another voice, though this one is much fainter than the other's.

“The footprint is, uh,” the voice trails off, and Lup sighs. She’s a Vulpix, she’d assume they’d be pretty common! Or at least well known. “I think Vulpix?”

“I am a Vulpix!” Lup yells, poking her snout through the grate. “You got it right!”

“You don’t have to yell at me!” the first voice says. “But fine, sorry, there just aren’t any Vulpix who live around here. Who’s with you? Have them also step on the grate.”

“Barry says he knows you,” Lup calls, but she hops off and Barry takes her place. He doesn’t have feet, though, so Lup’s not really sure what footprint they’re gonna get from him.

“Barry?” the second voice asks, louder now. “Why didn’t you say so? Here, wait a second, I’ll open the doors for you.”

With a rumble, the iron bars closing off the entrance to the guild pull up and leave the way into the guild wide-open. Lup and Barry both enter, and are greeted with a ladder descending down into the guild. Barry just floats down, but Lup spends a minute climbing down, figuring out where to put her paws. But she does it, and hops down to the ground.

They’re in a wide-open room, and through windows on either side, Lup can see the night sky as the sun disappears below the horizon. Aren’t they in a cliff? At her confused look, Barry explains, “it’s built into the side of the cliff, that’s why you can still see outside.”

“That makes sense,” Lup says with a nod, trotting over to the window. She stands on her hind paws and rests her front paws on the windowsill, staring outside. The sky is speckled throughout with little stars, and there’s something about the stars that make Lup’s heart race. They’re beautiful, and even though she doesn’t know any constellations, she wants to lie outside and find them, anyways.

“BARRY!” someone yells, that second voice Lup heard outside, and she spins around, her tails smacking against the wall, just in time to see a Lucario throw themselves at Barry and wrap him in a hug.

“Hi, Magnus,” Barry says, and Magnus lets him go. Barry floats up so he’s eye-level with Magnus, but this Lucario is about an entire foot taller than Lup, and that’s not fair. She looks around to see if there’s anything she can hop up on, and sees a desk, on the opposite side of the room, that she runs over and hops onto.

“Why are you here so late?” Magnus asks. “And who’s the Vulpix with you?” He turns and waves to Lup, who sits on the desk and waves back. She’s still not as tall as him, but it’s a bit better.

“I’m Lup,” Lup says, “I’m…not from around here. I showed up today, and Barry’s been showing me around. We’re here to make an exploration team.”

“You’re finally joining?” Magnus asks, and Barry nods, moving over to Lup’s side. Magnus grins. “Good! I’ve been waiting! And hey, Lup, is it? Nice to meet you!”

“You too,” Lup says, hopping down from the desk when Magnus starts to move for the ladder down to what she assumes is the second basement floor. “So, how does making a team work? Is there someone we have to talk to?”

“Oh, just the Guildmaster, but he’s pretty cool,” Magnus says, “he should still be up, a few of us are.”

When Lup makes it to the bottom of the stairs, Barry just behind her, Magnus has his paws spread wide to show off the bottom floor of the guild. It’s mostly empty, though there’s a Rockruff off to the right, sitting by a rock-lined hole with a little plant sticking out of it, and a Dragonair off to the left, coiled around something. Lup smells the wet scent of ink, coming from Dragonair’s direction.

“The Guildmaster is over there,” Magnus says, pointing to a door on the left, “you can go talk to Lucretia, and then to him. I need to get back to actually doing my job, so…seeya tomorrow? I could show you two around, first thing, if you want?”

“Sure, Magnus,” Barry says, “thanks for helping.”

“Hey, no problem!” Magnus says, and he runs over to the Rockruff, the two of them talking in low voices.

“Lucretia?” Lup asks, following Barry as he heads over to the Dragonair. He points to the Dragonair, and Lup nods.

“She’s second-in-command,” Barry says, “though ranks aren’t that strict, I think. Hi, Lucretia!”

The Dragonair turns to look at them, and Lup notices what she was coiled around—a rather large sheet of parchment, and a jar of ink. Lucretia’s tail is dyed black. Is that what she was writing with? It would make since, seeing as she has no arms. The words on the parchment, however, Lup can’t make out. They aren’t in any language she knows.

“Barry, Vulpix,” Lucretia greets.

“I’m Lup,” Lup says, her tails flicking, and Lucretia nods.

“Lup, then. Why are you both here?”

“We want to form an exploration team,” Barry explains, “is the Guildmaster up? Magnus said he was.”

“He is,” Lucretia says, and she wipes the ink off her tail by patting it against the grassy ground. She closes the bottle of ink, wrapping the cap up in her tail and placing it atop, and uses the small horn on her head to roll her parchment up.

“What are you writing?” Lup asks, inching forwards to get a better look at the rolled-up parchment. It smells like paper and ink. Lucretia wraps it in her tail, and makes her way over to the door, where Magnus said the Guildmaster was.

“A record of today’s events,” she says. “Where teams went, anything discovered about the stopping of time, money made and where it was spent, that kind of thing.”

“Stopping of time?” Lup asks, because what? The fuck?

“The guild is investigating it,” Lucretia says, which really doesn’t answer Lup’s question. “Ah, Lup, you haven’t met the Guildmaster before, have you?”

“Nope,” Lup says. _We’re just not gonna touch on the stopping of time?_ she thinks to herself, and makes a mental note to ask Barry later.

“Well, don’t be surprised when you see him,” Lucretia says, and she pushes the door open, entering into the dim room first. Barry follows, and Lup behind him, and they stop in the center of the room.

Lup only stays standing because Barry catches her when she stumbles.

Because the Pokémon perched on the red rug in front of her is towering over all of them, casting a long shadow in the faint flickers of firelight, and Lup thinks, off to the side, _that’s why the entrance to the guild was shaped like Lugia._

Lugia looks down at them. Lup isn’t sure whether she should bow, or just call this whole thing off, because that! Is a god! And he’s just! Running a guild for, what, the fun of it?

“Lup,” Barry whispers, and she grabs onto his voice like a rock when drowning, “it’s fine, Davenport’s cool.”

“Lugia is named Davenport,” Lup says, more of a statement than a question.

“I am,” Lugia—Davenport—whatever—says. “Lucretia says you two want to form an exploration team?”

“We do,” Barry says, and he sounds calm, like staring up at a god is just a thing he does on a daily basis. Lup trembles, sets her ears back and is unable to fake confidence. There’s something in her yelling at her to run, to get away before this situation goes to shit and she’s dead and separated from—from—

The thought is gone before she can comprehend it, leaving just the sense of panic. She wants to hide and cower behind Barry until they can get out of this room, but she can’t do that. If she’s gonna start an exploration team and go on adventures, she can’t be a coward.

Lugia doesn’t even seem mean. He’s not activity trying to kill her. He gave her his name!

Oh, shit. She knows Lugia’s name.

“I’m Lup!” she says, and she takes a deep, deep breath. She has to calm the fuck down. Barry’s calm, and Barry was more nervous about fighting those Jerrys than she was, so Davenport has to be cool. She trusts Barry, which is a weird thing to do when she’s known him maybe a few hours, maximum, but he just…he’s someone. He helped her. “Sorry, I’m just. You’re Lugia. And you run a guild.”

“Being a god is very boring,” Davenport says, and he sounds rather amused. “That’s why I opened the guild. Now, do you two have a team name? We need one to register you.”

“Aw, shit, I knew I forgot something,” Barry says, and he turns to Lup. “You have any ideas? I’m not the best with names.”

“Um,” Lup says, wishing desperately that she could leech some of the calmness that Barry’s projecting. “Can the name be anything?”

“Anything,” Davenport says, “except the name of another team, because that would make things very confusing.”

Team names? Lup glances around the room, trying to get ideas. Team…rug…window. No, that’s terrible. She looks back at Barry, and an idea hits her.

“What about Blup?” she asks. “You know, combine our names? Blup. It’s also fun to say.”

“Team Blup…” Barry says, like he’s tasting the word on his…does he have a tongue? He doesn’t really have a mouth, so where are his words coming from? “I like it!”

“Team Blup it is,” Davenport says, and Lucretia pulls out a journal from a little hole in the wall, along with another jar of ink, and scratches out what Lup assumes is their team name, though again, she can’t read the language. “There’s one thing I have to give you, an exportation team kit.”

Davenport turns around, and when he does that Lup feels some tension leave her body. She’s not sure why she’s so terrified of this Pokémon—what, did she have a bad run-in with a god and she’s just forgotten about it? Legendary Pokémon are called that for a reason, and she doubts human-her ever came across one.

“Are you okay?” Barry asks, in a low whisper.

“I don’t know,” Lup tells him. “I believe you. That Davenport isn’t bad. It’s just…”

“Scary?” Barry offers, and she nods. “It’s okay. I was scared the first time I met him, too. But he’s really just a normal Pokémon like the rest of us. I guess you just get used to it?” He floats down, a bit closer to her, so she can brush up against him, and it’s only a little sad that that works.

“Okay, here it is,” Davenport says, and he presents them with a golden box that looks tiny in his wing-hands, but is maybe half the size of Lup when he places it down. Lup noses it open, and both her and Barry peer inside.

There’s a rolled-up map, a bag, and two badges. The main circle of the badges is white, with a little pink glowing gem in the center, and golden wings on either side. Lup touches one with a paw: her paw is about as big as the center, and the badges are cool to the touch. Metal, she assumes.

“That map is the Wonder Map,” Davenport says, “it’s used to plot out any locations you two find. The Treasure Bag is, well, a bag, and you can store any items you have in there without having to carry them. The badges mark you as an exploration team. Lucretia can write your team name on them, and then just mark your individual badge with your footprint, or in Barry’s case, handprint.”

Barry nods, and he pulls everything out of the little box it’s in. He passes both badges to Lucretia, and sticks the map in the bag.

“Can you carry the bag?” he asks Lup, “I’m not great at holding things like that. Tends to just…slip off.” He proves his point by floating under the strap of the bag, and when he floats back up to the typical height he’s at, just a bit taller than Lup, the bag slips right off his side.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Lup says, nosing at the strap until she can fit it around her neck. She shakes, trying to adjust the bag, until it settles at her side and is mostly comfortable. “How do we put on the badges?”

“Yours can be worn as a necklace,” Lucretia says, passing Lup a badge and the pot of ink. Lup presses her paw in the ink, then to the badge, just under where their team name has been written. The sweeping strokes of the name are letters, Lup can tell that much. She rubs her ink-stained paw in the grass when she’s done.

There’s a thin bit of rope fastened around the badge, like a necklace, which is probably how she’ll wear it. She turns to Barry.

“Can you put it on?” she asks, “I don’t think my paws can reach all around my neck.”

“Oh, sure,” Barry says, and he picks up her badge. Lup lifts her head so it’s a bit easier for him, and flattens her ears to keep them out of the way. When he’s done, Lup takes a step back and shakes herself. Her badge-necklace stays on.

“Neat,” she mutters, and then, to Barry, “thanks. Do you want me to put yours on?”

“I don’t know how mine will fit,” Barry says, as he dips his hand in ink and then presses it to his badge. “I can’t wear it like you are.”

“You should be able to pin it on?” Lucretia says. Lup looks at her, and notices that Lucretia has a badge of her own, also worn as a necklace around her neck, under her orb, though the gem in the center is a dark blue. “Or maybe…attach it to your skull somehow?”

“That last one might work…” Barry says, and he picks up his badge, fiddling with it. Lup sits back to watch him, and eventually, he ends up with it attached around the skull that makes up his face, and the badge itself hanging just under the teeth of the skull. “Okay, I think that’s as good as it’s going to look.”

“You look fine,” Lup reassures him, standing and stretching. “Is there anything else we need to do?” She looks up at Davenport, who’s a lot easier to be around, now. Maybe she really did just need to get used to him.

“Not for today,” Davenport says. “Lucretia can show you to your room, and then tomorrow, someone can show you around.”

“Magnus volunteered,” Barry says.

“Then Magnus can do it,” Davenport says. He tucks his wing-hands close to his body. “Other than that, good luck on your future adventures!”

“Thanks, Davenport!” Barry calls as they follow Lucretia out of the room, and Lup manages a wave of her own. From there, Lucretia leads them to a corridor to their left, and they pass a few other rooms before Lucretia shows them to one at the very end of the hallway.

There are already two beds made, and Lup collapses in the first one. They’re soft, made of some type of straw, and Lup stretches and rolls onto her back so she can still see Lucretia. Barry laughs, a little, and settles down in the bed next to her. He doesn’t float above it, but instead nestles down in it in a way that remind Lup of a bird sitting on its eggs.

“You’ll have to be up early tomorrow, but someone should come by to wake you up,” Lucretia says. “Goodnight, you two.”

Both Lup and Barry echo goodnights of their own, and Lucretia leaves them alone.

“Wow,” Barry says, breaking the silence, “wow. I can’t believe…all of this has been my dream for so long, and to think that it’s finally happening…”

Lup flips around to look at him, resting her snout on the rim of her nest. The edges of his cape are fluttering, a bit, and the energy reminds Lup of a wagging tail. “I’m sorry I didn’t warn you about Davenport earlier,” he says.

“I don’t know that a warning would’ve helped much,” Lup says, yawning. “I’m excited too, Barry. Maybe I’ll figure out what happened to my memories.” She rubs at her nose, and then remembers something. “Oh, right. Earlier Lucretia mentioned something about time stopping? What’s all that about?”

“Just what it sounds like,” Barry says, “there’s been reports of time messing up, all over the continent. It has something to do with the time gears, but nobody’s sure why.”

“Time gears?” Lup asks.

“They’re said to regulate the flow of time in specific areas,” Barry explains, and he floats up a bit in his nest to gesture as he talks. “They’re hidden all over the world, in secret alters.” He moves over to the window, and Lup joins him, resting her paws on the windowsill so she can see outside. “Far northeast,” he says, and he points off, far beyond the cliffs the guild is at, “there’s a place called Treeshroud Forest. About a week ago, time there stopped, completely. There’s no wind, no rain, no sun…the entire forest is in constant darkness.”

“What the fuck,” Lup says, and Barry laughs, a little.

“The time gear was stolen,” Barry continues, “that’s what the guild has been investigating. There’s no leads on who the culprit is, or if they’re planning to strike again, or what their end goal is.”

“Time stopping…” Lup mutters, “do you think that has anything to do with my memory? Like, maybe I’m from there?”

Barry shakes his head. “I don’t think you would be. All of the Pokémon who lived there, everyone managed to escape. But then again, who knows.”

Lup sighs. “Well, at least we’ll know what’s up,” she says. “Is there anything else going on I should know about?”

“That’s the biggest thing,” Barry says, “um…oh! Right. Because time is messing up, nobody’s been able to evolve, recently. That’s been going on far longer than a week, though.”

“Damn,” Lup mutters, and she drops back onto all fours. She’s still got the bag on, and she shrugs that off, letting it be in a heap under the window. “You think we’ll be investigating this stuff tomorrow?”

“Maybe?” Barry shrugs, and the two of them return to their nests. “It’s our first day, I doubt they’d have us do something dangerous, but. Later down the line…there’s not too many Pokémon at the guild.”

“Something to look forward to,” Lup says, yawning. “Goodnight, Barry.”

“Goodnight, Lup,” he says, and Lup curls up, tucks her nose under her tails, and lets sleep drag her away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> while replaying explorers of sky for the third time, i had a sudden realization that this was a crossover i had to create, because nobody else was going to do it. i am the intended audience for this fic. it is entirely self indulgent. i wrote the entirety of this fic in a week, despite the fact that i was about 150k words into a mcfucking novel, and you know what? yeah. the taz/eos crossover only i wanted. 
> 
> if you're reading this and you haven't played sky, one, thanks, and two, please play sky it is the best pokemon game out there. i own three copies of this game. one bc it was my first, another bc i wanted to replay it but was emotionally attached to my original team, and a third that my friend gave me. 
> 
> you might be wondering why davenport is a lugia. that's easy. in soul silver, i named my lugia davenport. now i'm incapable of seeing him as anything else. and a note on names, i always found it weird in the mystery dungeon games that only you and your partner got names, so now i go on a system of 'all pokemon have names, but you call them species name until they tell you their actual name.'
> 
> also. chapter titles are the actual chapter titles from sky.
> 
> chapter two coming whenever i finish my daily novel writing goals early enough (aka, probably within a week or two)


	2. The Scream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lup touches a scarf, and passes out. This is a precursor of things to come.

“UP AND AT ‘EM!” someone yells, and Lup’s startled awake, letting out a yelp as she trips over the rim of her nest and smashes her snout into the floor of their room. She looks around, frantically, before her eyes catch Barry’s red-robed form, similarly discombobulated, and she relaxes. Right. They’re members of the guild.

“Ugh,” Lup mumbles, rubbing at her head as she drags herself over to where she left the bag, slipping it on. She looks up, at the window, where the sun has barely risen, and is gripped with something so fierce she almost falls over.

“Lup?” Barry asks, drifting over to her, and Lup shakes herself.

“I’m fine, just…” She lifts up on her hind paws to stare out the window. There’s the sun, spilling yellow light over the still-dark town, and the sky is orange-red and the clouds are pink and it’s the prettiest thing Lup’s ever seen in her life. “Isn’t this wonderful?”

“The sunrise?” Barry asks, peering out at it. “Huh. It is really pretty today. I’m usually not up early enough to see this.”

“I think I used to sleep in late,” Lup says, and she presses a paw to the glass of the window, like she could reach out and scoop up on the colors on her paw. “I don’t…this is _amazing._ Human-me was stupid to never see this.”

“HEY! ROOKIES!” yells that same voice that woke her up, and Lup is loath to tear herself away from the sunrise. But Barry is already turning, and by the way he tenses she can assume that means someone is maybe trying to talk to them.

She sighs. There’s always tomorrow. She can watch the sunrise then.

But…what if there isn’t? Barry said, last night, that in that forest where time stopped, the sun never rises. What if the time gear for this area is stolen? What if she never gets to see sunrise again?

Lup steels herself. Whoever is taking time gears, taking away moments like this…she’ll help in catching them. She’s in the perfect place to! She and Barry will work their way up in the guild, and she’ll make sure nobody ever loses sunrise again.

She turns to face the door into their room, and sees a Luxio, sitting with their tail curled around their paws, an amused glint to their eyes. “Hi,” they say, “sorry to bother you, but morning meeting is in a few and it would look pretty bad to be late on your first day.”

“Oh,” Lup says. “I guess.”

“You guess?” Luxio asks, and they stand up, their tail waving with mirth. “I think I like you. What’s your name? How’d you and Barry meet?”

“Lup, and I just came into town yesterday, he showed me around,” Lup answers. “Do you already know Barry?”

“Yeah, all of us guild members do,” they say. “He comes around often enough. And Lup: thank you so much for showing up when you did. Thanks to you, I just won over 5000 Poké and everyone owes me drinks at Spinda’s Café!”

Lup looks to Barry for help, but his eye is squinted. “Wait,” he says, “were you guys betting on when I’d join?”

“For almost a year now!” Luxio says, hopping forward a few steps. “I was the only one who said you’d join at the end of this year, and I! Am! Now! Rich! Well, sorta. A lot of that money is going into us not dying on adventures, you know the drill.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Lup says, “but what’s Poké? And Spinda’s Café?”

“Poké is money,” Luxio says, “is it called something different where you’re from? There’s a bank in town, you could probably exchange currency there if you needed. And Spinda’s Café is a little shop at the crossroads, run by Spinda, who makes really good drinks. You could join us there, if you want.”

“You really bet on if I’d join,” Barry mutters, and Lup snorts, amused.

“Everyone believed in you,” Luxio says, “well, except Merle, who said you were too much of a coward and would never join, but the rest of us believed in you.”

The three of them stop at the exit for the rooms. “Okay, morning meeting is just up here. Oh! I never introduced myself. I’m Julia. Hopefully we’ll be working together soon!”

She trots into the room, and Lup and Barry follow her.

There’s a small crowd of Pokémon all gathered around in front of the door to Davenport’s room. Lup recognizes the Lucario, Magnus, and the Dragonair, Lucretia, but everyone else is new to her. She counts nine Pokémon in all: the three she knows, the Rockruff she saw the other day, a Torterra, Jangmo-o, Axew, Kricketune, and Golett. She follows Barry, who floats to an empty spot next to Magnus and Julia, and sits next to him.

“Hi, Barry and Lup!” Magnus says, waving. He’s sitting, so it’s a lot easier to talk to him without having to look up. “Still up for me showing you around today?”

“We are,” Barry says. “Where’s Davenport?”

“Eh, he’s got another minute,” Magnus says, “I wouldn’t worry. Oh, Lup, lemme introduce you to everyone real quick.”

He stands up, and starts pointing to everyone. “That’s Merle,” he says, pointing to the Torterra who’s lazing near the window, “Carey and Killian,” the Jangmo-o and Axew who are laying down beside each other, “Noelle,” the Golett talking with them, “Avi, who helps me with sentry duty,” the Rockruff, “Johann,” the Kricketune, “and, of course, saving the best for last, my wife, Julia!”

“You got married?” Barry asks, looking between the two of them.

“In spirit,” Magnus says. “If not in law.”

“Still looking for someone to legally marry us!” Julia adds, her tail curling. “There's nobody in town who can do it, so we might pressure Merle into it. Maybe once all this time gear nonsense is finally figured out, we can put more resources into finding someone.”

“Are you investigating the time gears?” Lup asks, and Magnus nods.

“Our team is leading the search,” he says, “trying to find places that might have time gears, and find ways to protect them. Though…”

“We haven’t found much so far,” Julia says. “Lucretia’s been looking, but there’s not much out there on time gears.”

“Can we help?” Lup asks.

“Not yet,” Magnus says, “you guys are new to all this. But once you’ve proven yourself, absolutely! We need all the help we can get. The best you can do now is keep your ears pricked for any information.”

“I will,” Lup says, and turns to face the front of the room when the door to Davenport’s room creaks open, and Davenport himself comes out.

It’s easier, this time, to see Lugia. That bone-deep panic doesn’t set in, and the fact that nobody in the room is fazed to see the god does wonders to settle her nerves. She scoots closer to Barry, all the same.

“Alright, team,” Davenport says, “we don’t have any news on the time gears, though Lucretia has found a possible lead. We have two new guild members, Barry and Lup, who joined last night.”

He pauses, and Lup hears applause and various well-wishes and good-lucks thrown their way from the Pokémon in the crowd. She also hears some cursing from the Jangmo-o, Carey, that Lup gathers to be at losing the bet. Once everyone settles down, Davenport continues.

“As for today’s duties,” he says, “Carey, Killian, I need you two to take over sentry duty for the foreseeable future. Noelle, you can join Avi and Johann’s team for the time. Lucretia, you and your team prepare to head after your lead tomorrow. Barry, Lup, since you’re new, you won’t be assigned to working on the time gears just yet. Magnus will explain what you two will be doing.”

He nods, ruffling his wings. “That’s all for today. Good luck out there, everyone.”

He goes back into his room, followed by Lucretia, while the rest of the guild members split off into smaller teams of their own. Carey and Killian head over to the hole with the plant growing out of it, Avi, Johann, and Noelle all go up the ladder, while Julia bumps her nose to Magnus’s before she trots over to Merle.

“Okay, you two,” Magnus says, standing, “I’ll show you around, explain what you’ll be doing. Now, all that’s down here is just the rooms, and then the sentry station, which is where Carey and Killian went. Meetings are held down here. Now, upstairs…”

They climb up the ladder and Magnus points to two boards on either side of the room. “These are where Pokémon can put up their job requests,” he explains, “one of the biggest jobs of an exploration team is to help out Pokémon who need it, so exploration teams from all over come to our guild to find and complete jobs. With most of the guild working on the time gears, we’ve been neglecting these jobs. So, at least for a while, that’s what you two will be doing.”

“But we can eventually help with the time gears, right?” Lup asks.

“Yeah! It’s just…really dangerous. But we really do need as much help as we can get.”

“This is a bit off topic,” Barry starts, “but what is your exploration? Did you find the location of a possible time gear?”

“Not really,” Magnus says, “we found the location of ruins that might give us the location of a time gear. But Team mmmMMM JaLa is on it! If we do happen to find anything, I think Lucretia wants us to mount an expedition, get the whole guild involved.”

“One question,” Lup says. “mmmMMM JaLa?”

“My team,” Magnus says, “it’s me, Julia, Lucretia, and Merle. We mashed up the first letters of each of our names. Lucretia hates it, but everyone else outvoted her.”

“It’s amazing,” Lup tells him, and he grins at that.

“Thanks! You two think you’ve got it from here? I need to go start preparing.” Magnus bounces on his feet, tail waving.

“I think we’re good,” Barry says, “I hope you guys are successful on your exploration.”

“So do I,” Magnus says. “Whoever is stealing the time gears…I just really hope we stop them before everything gets worse.” He sighs, looking down, before he shakes himself and goes to the ladder, climbing downstairs.

Lup brushes up against Barry. “Hey, I hope it’s okay that I volunteered us to help find time gears, in the future,” she says. “It’s just…seeing the sunrise and thinking about how you said Treeshroud Forest doesn’t have sunrise anymore, it made me really mad. That someone would be doing this.”

“Don’t worry,” Barry says, “I agree with you. If we’re picked to investigate the time gears, I’ll be out there with you.”

“Good,” Lup says, breathing a sigh of relief. “Now, let’s find some poor Pokémon to help, shall we?”

They peruse the boards for a job they feel confident that they can do, and end up deciding to go with a local Lillipup, who put up a message asking for help finding some important papers he left at the Drenched Bluffs. Lup pulls out the map, they find Drenched Bluffs, and off they go.

Drenched Bluffs are a set of cliffs overlooking the sea, and slowly, Lup and Barry make their way down. It’s easier for Barry than Lup, since he can just float, so he takes to letting Lup stick close to the walls, while he can float closer to the edge and not have to worry about it.

There’s Pokémon, too, who try to attack them, but Barry’s able to scare most of them off, and the rest, Lup can help out with embers from a distance, even if they aren’t the most effective against water Pokémon. She’s thankful for Barry being there. If it was her alone, she would’ve been knocked off long ago.

“I see something!” Barry calls, “there’s a little cave, just up here, you think something might be in there?”

“Worth checking out,” Lup says, and she ducks into the cave when she passes by it. There’s the steady drip-drip of water in the background, and she pauses to catch her breathe.

“Are you okay?” Barry asks, hovering over to her side. Lup nods and waves him away.

“Just a bit tired,” she says, “from climbing down all those cliffs. I’ll be okay.” She takes another breath and resumes her walking, sniffing around the cave to see if she can catch the smell of ink or paper. “How many papers should it be?” she calls.

“It said three,” Barry answers. Lup nods, and worms her way into a smaller opening off the cave. Splitting up might not be the best option, but Lup can always yell if she needs help. The tunnel she entered widens into yet another cave, this one with a little pool of water that’s being fed by smaller streams of water, and in the middle of the room, she sees a pile of papers.

“Barry!” she calls, bounding over to the papers. They aren’t wet, and the writing on them is scratchy but undamaged. “I think I found them!”

“Where are you?” Barry calls back, faint.

“On the side I was poking around on, there’s a gap in the wall!” Lup sits, pawing at the papers. Sure enough, there’s three of them, and when she pulls the job request out of her bag, the handwriting on the two matches. So, this is obviously the same Lillipup.

“Okay, Lup, found it,” Barry calls, and she turns to face the entrance into her smaller cave. Barry emerges after a second, and joins her at the papers, reading them. “Oh, wow. This is information about a wanted outlaw.”

“Wait, really?” Lup asks, as she gathers the papers and stores them in the bag. “Who’s the outlaw?”

“It said Hypno,” Barry says, floating back to the exit as Lup finishes situating her bag. “It was mostly notes about last known location, that sorta thing. I guess Lillipup was investigating them?”

“We’d better hurry back, then,” Lup says, squeezing through the tunnel. Barry’s lucky, because he can just pass through the walls. “Don’t want some outlaw running around any longer than necessary.”

She finally emerges back into the first cave, and pokes her head outside. It’s just past midday, and considering they left in the morning…

“It’s gonna take us forever to climb back up there,” Lup says, sighing. “If only I could float around like you.” She watches Barry as he exits the cave, and shakes out her paws. “Let’s get going, then.”

She walks, but Barry isn’t next to her, and she turns around, confused. He’s still at the entrance to the cave, and he’s looking up the cliffs, eye squinted in thought.

“Barry…?” Lup asks, pricking an ear. “Are you good?”

“Just had an idea,” he says, and Lup walks over to him. “You were saying how you have to climb all the way up, while I can just float, right? But what if I carried you? So, then you wouldn’t have to walk all that way, and we’d make it to the top faster?”

“Would that work?” Lup asks, looking down at her paws then back up at Barry. “We’re about the same size.”

“Who knows?” Barry says. “It’s worth a shot, right?”

“You know what? Yeah,” Lup says, and she nods. “I’ll just…balance on your back?”

“Sure,” Barry says. “My idea was actually for me to just carry you, like, in my arms, but thinking about that now and I don’t think it’ll work.

“No,” Lup says, snorting. For that to work, he’d be holding her basically in front of his face, and that would be awkward and uncomfortable for both of them. 

“Yours has a chance of working, though,” Barry says, and he floats down so she can climb onto him. It’s wobbly, and hard to get a pawhold, but there’s a fold in his cape-body, just under the two bone-shapes, that she manages to dig her paws into. For her front, she lowers her body until her chin is resting atop Barry, and she hooks her front paws around the little wispy flap atop his head.

“Okay,” Lup says, “I think I’m good. What about you?”

“I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to work,” Barry says, “but I’ll at least try.”

He’s fully on the ground, now, but he manages to float up a shaky foot or so, before collapsing back down. The force is enough to knock Lup off of his back, and she lands on her side on the stone.

“Okay, no,” Barry says, but he’s laughing, and Lup grins at him as she rolls back to her feet.

“It was a good idea, though,” she says, “I’ll just resign myself to walking.” She snorts her amusement, beginning her slow ascent back up the cliffs. “One day, I’m sure I’ll grow wings.”

“One day,” Barry agrees, floating at her side. “Hey, I can try taking the bag, for a little while.”

“You can’t wear it, though,” Lup says. Barry shrugs.

“I have arms. I could hold it, might make the trip up easier.”

Lup smiles, at that, lowering her head and letting the strap of the bag fall onto the ground. “Thanks, Barry,” she says, “that’s really nice of you.”

“I feel bad that I can’t hold it,” he says, “it’s not fair to you.” Scooping up the bag with his arms, he gets a good grip on it, though Lup notices that he can’t float as high. Weight must make it harder, for him, and he’s still trying to help her.

She smiles to herself, and makes it up back up the cliffs with a skip in her step. From there, the trip back to Treasure Town is laughable easy, and they pass the stairs up to the guild as they head into the town proper. Lup hasn’t actually been into town, yet, so Barry points out all the various shops as they pass them: a bank, run by another Duskull, though this one isn’t shiny and Barry says there’s no relation between them, a move tutor, a shop, and storage.

They find Lillipup at the shop, talking to the two Kecleon who run it—they’re brothers, Barry tells her. Barry sets down the bag, and the two of them wait for Lillipup to finish his conversation before approaching.

Lillipup turns away, after another few minutes, and Lup hops back to her feet. “Hi! Lillipup! You were looking for some papers you left at the Drenched Bluffs, right?”

“I was!” Lillipup says, and his tail wags. He’s even shorter than Lup is, which is a first, and his eyes are wide and youthful. “I need them for a case I’m working on. Did you find them?”

“Sure did,” Lup says, and she returns to the bag, where Barry’s already pulled out the three papers, and he hands them to Lillipup. She sits down beside Barry, and grins.

“Thank you so much, Duskull and Vulpix!” Lillipup says, grinning back.

“It’s Barry,” Barry says, and Lillipup’s tail wags even harder.

“And I’m Lup,” Lup says. “Glad we could help.”

“Wow, okay,” Lillipup says. “I’m Angus, then. Is it okay if I ask you something?”

“Yeah, course,” Lup says, nosing the bag back on and shaking out her fur. “We don’t mind helping you. Did you leave some other papers behind?”

“No, I just wanted to ask if you had any information on the outlaw Hypno. You’re from the guild, right? Does the guild know anything about him?”

“Can’t say that we do,” Lup says, “sorry.”

“It seems like you already have a lot of information on Hypno,” Barry adds, and Angus nods.

“I do, I just wanted to cover all of my bases. Well, I’m going to go catch him, now, so, thanks again for finding my papers!”

As he starts to leave, Lup hops to her feet. “Wait, wait, are you going alone?” she asks, glancing back at Barry, who looks just as worried as she feels. “You’re just a kid!”

“That doesn’t mean I’m not capable,” Angus says. “Don’t worry, ma’am, I’m the world’s greatest detective! I know to be careful, and I have all the information I need on Hypno.”

“Are you sure you don’t want us to come with you?” Lup offers. “Just in case?”

“I’ll be fine,” Angus reassures them, tilting his head. “How about, I tell you where I’m going so if I’m not back by tomorrow you know to come look for me?”

“You really don’t want us to just come with you?” Barry asks, and Angus shakes his head.

“No! I’m perfectly able to doing this by myself.” Angus scratches at the dirt under his paws. “I’ve captured outlaws before, and I was fine. Hypno isn’t super strong, anyways. He relies on surprise, and he won’t have that, because I’m going to be stalking him.”

“Fine,” Lup says, “at least tell us where you’re going, then.”

“Mt. Bristle,” Angus says, “that’s where Hypno’s base is! He’s stolen a lot from the Kecleon brothers, so I’m also going to get their stolen items back.”

“Just…stay safe,” Barry says, “and good luck!”

“Thank you, sir!” Angus calls, and he goes running off to the crossroads. Barry sighs as he leaves, and turns to Lup.

“I think we did the wrong thing,” he says, “he’s a child.”

“Oh, yeah, I also feel real shitty,” Lup tells him, and she slumps to the side, leaning against Barry. “If that kid isn’t back tomorrow, we’re going to that mountain and making sure he’s okay.”

“Good thing we’re in agreement,” Barry says, and Lup sighs, standing to her paws. “We should head back to the guild. It’s getting late.”

Lup nods, but before she can even take two steps, her paws catch on something soft. She looks down, and sees a pale pink scarf, the she pushes at with a paw.

“What is it?” Barry asks, joining her to look at the scarf. “Oh, a defense scarf. Angus must’ve dropped it. We should hold onto it and give it back to him.”

“Yeah,” Lup says, but then she gets a pounding headache, and her vision goes red around the edges. She stumbles, and trips over the edge of the scarf. She hears Barry, maybe, but the red is pounding and then she hears a scream and her vision goes white.

When she can see again, she doesn’t see Barry, or the scarf, or Treasure Town. It’s like she’s seeing a scene from high above, in the third person, removed from the actions. What she does see, though, is Angus, and he’s backed up against a cliff, pinned in by two Hariyama, and advancing on him is a Hypno.

Another piecing scream, and she blinks to see Barry hovering in front of her, along with a Kecleon and…a Luxio? Julia?

“Lup!” Barry’s saying, but it sounds like his voice is being muffled, like Lup’s hearing everything from underwater. She stumbles to her paws, and squeezes her eyes shut. Everything is pounding, and too much, and she presses her face against the first solid thing she finds and just breathes.

“Is she okay?” asks Julia, “I heard you yell, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know, she just collapsed,” Barry says. His voice is clearer, now, and Lup feels her headache ebb away.

“Here,” says someone she doesn’t know, though she guesses to be the Kecleon, “I have some Oran Berries.”

She’s tugged gently away from whatever her head was pressed against, and whines when she can see light even behind her closed lids, but she’s feeling a bit better so she risks opening them. There’s an Oran Berry, in front of her, and she nibbles at it. It’s just as sweet as she remembers.

“Lup, what happened?” Barry asks, and she shakes her head. There’s too many Pokémon, too many things happening. She wants to curl up in her bed.

“Here,” Julia says, and Lup feels the bag lifted off of her. “I’ll take your stuff back to the guild. I hope you feel better, Lup.”

Lup nods, twitches one of her tails in what she hopes comes across as thanks. She looks up at Barry as Julia’s pawsteps fade off, and wants, despite the anatomy differences, a hug.

“Barry,” she mutters, and she noses herself against him, prodding at his arms with a paw. Barry seems to get it, and soon she’s being hugged and she’s hit with the faintest memory of something similar—of hugging someone and being so close she couldn’t tell where she ended and they started.

But it’s gone as soon as she thinks it, leaving just this hug in this moment as the only hug Lup can remember. It’s not perfect. Barry’s still floating, and she can’t really hug him back, so she’s just got her face bumped against his skull, doing her best to keep her snout out of his eye sockets, and his body isn’t the most solid. It reminds her of melted ice, something mostly there, but not entirely.

She wants to stay like this forever.

“Lup, what happened?” Barry asks, soft,

And then she remembers Angus.

“Angus!” she says, and she springs to her feet, all the warmth and safety she felt replaced with fear and panic. “There was a scream, and, and everything went dark and then I was seeing something from above, and it was Angus! He’s in trouble!”

“What do you mean?” Barry asks, but Lup’s already gone, bolting full-speed for the crossroads. She feels better, now, the dizziness that overtook her gone or the Oran Berry working its magic. “Lup!”

“We have to go to Mt. Bristle,” she says. “Angus is in trouble, and we have to go help him.”

“Lup, slow down!” Barry begs, and she skids to a stop at the exit of town because she doesn’t know where Mt. Bristle even is. “Angus is in trouble? You heard a scream?”

“I don’t know!” she snaps, spinning around to snarl at Barry, who comes to a quick stop just in front of her. “I had a vision, or something, and Angus is in trouble, and we don’t have time to sit around and figure out what’s going on, we have to get to Mt. Bristle!” She growls, her tails lashing. “Or, what, do you not believe me?”

“No!” Barry says, shaking his head, and his eye flares. “Lup, I believe you; I just don’t know what’s happening! You passed out and now Angus is in trouble? Can you even climb a mountain? And again, you passed out! I’m worried about you!”

“I’ll be fine,” Lup snarls, and she turns back to the crossroads. “Do you know where Mt. Bristle?”

“Yes, but Lup—”

“Later,” she says, “if a kid dies because I wasn’t fast enough to get there, I won’t be okay. Will you help me?”

Barry takes a deep breath. The edges of his cape are whipping around in a matter similar to her lashing tails, but they calm down. “Yes,” he says. “I’ll help you. Follow me.”

“Thank you,” Lup breathes, and she rushes after her teammate.

* * *

Mt. Bristle isn’t the tallest mountain Lup’s ever seen. That brings up the question of what mountains she has seen, then, but she doesn’t have time to spend on that. It doesn’t matter. She’s not sure where she gets the strength from, but she’s leaping from rock to rock and ledge to ledge and climbing her way up the mountain and to the peak. That’s where Angus has to be, she thinks, and any time wasted is another second that could lead to his death.

“There’s,” she says, through pants, as her claws scrabble uselessly at solid rock, “the Hypno, I think the one Angus was talking about, and two Hariyama, who were helping the Hypno.” She bites back a snarl when she slips, but Barry’s already there to catch her and push her back up onto the rock. If there’s other Pokémon here, none of them are stupid enough to bother her, and for that, Lup’s thankful.

But she’s painfully aware of her own shortcomings. If only she could float like Barry, bypass all this climbing and be up at the top in seconds. But Barry can’t go alone, because they don’t know much about who they’re facing and three against one isn’t fair.

“Hariyama are giants compared to us,” Barry mutters. “I hate these odds.”

“Yeah, so do I,” Lup says, coughing. It’s a sign she should stop and rest, but they’re almost at the peak and they don’t have the fucking time for that. She flicks her tails to ask for silence as they approach, and drops into a low crouch, her ears shoved up. Barry lowers until he’s half-sunken into the rock, and she can’t tell he’s there unless she looks at him directly.

She makes it up onto another ledge, and they’re at the peak.

Luckily, the Hypno and two Hariyama have their backs to her and Barry, so they have the element of surprise. And Angus isn’t pinned against the wall yet, but he’s getting there, the Hariyama advancing and Angus creeping backwards. He’s so tiny she can barely see him, dwarfed by their enemies.

“Dumb mistake, boy detective,” Hypno says in a low, sneering drawl. Lup hates him instantly, and creeps forward, taking care not to kick a rock and fuck up. “Coming here all alone.”

“The guild knows where I am,” Angus says, and his voice is steady. Considering the situation he’s in, Lup’s impressed. “If I’m not back tomorrow, they’ll come after you.”

“The guild?” Hypno asks, and takes a step back at that. Lup snorts quietly. Benefits of having a Legendary Pokémon, probably. Makes threats way worse. The Hariyama stop, both of them looking at Hypno, and that’s when Angus, because he’s a stupid kid, jumps forward and bites the Hypno around the leg.

Kids. Lup snaps her teeth, and leaps into the fray.

A small fire is sent the way of one Hariyama, giving them a burn, and she continues her trajectory towards them by ramming into their chest. It’s not enough to knock them down, but it’s enough to make them stumble, and she’s side-to-side with Angus.

Barry comes out of the ground in a long shadow, attacking the Hypno, who trips backwards in a cringe, and then the three of them are back-to-back. And, also, surrounded.

“Why didn’t you run?” Lup hisses in a low tone to Angus, standing her ground and brandishing her tails tall behind her. It does nothing to scare the Hariyama, whose hands are roughly the size of her entire body.

“Lup? Barry?” Angus asks, confused. “How did you…were you following me?”

“Later,” Barry says, ducking into the ground to avoid the poisonous gas Hypno blows his direction.

“You know bite?” Lup says. “Focus on the Hypno, those Hariyama could kill you.”

“Okay,” Angus agrees, and they attack.

Lup lunges at the Hariyama she already hurt, but she’s grabbed by a giant hand and she yelps, biting and spitting flames at whatever she can reach. She’s unable to get free, and is thrown into the ground, slamming against Barry with a low whine of pain. When trying to struggle to her paws, she’s hit full-force with a ball of water, and that sends her down again. She’s alive, she’s not fainted yet, but everything hurts.

“Why the fuck do you know water moves?” Lup snarls, throwing a confuse ray that luckily hits, and that Hariyama stumbles off and is, for now, not a problem. That leaves Hypno, who doesn’t seem to be doing too good if Angus biting at his leg and Barry attacking with shadows is anything to go by, and the still full-health Hariyama.

Everything about this situation is the worst. She makes it back to her paws, and feels fire build up inside her, before releasing it all to trap the Hariyama in a vortex of flames. That’ll keep it from just fucking killing her.

Something small brushes against her, and Lup looks down to see Angus, who’s worse off than he was earlier, but a lot better than she is. He’s got a little bag of his own, and he paws at it.

“I have berries in there,” he says, “you look really hurt.”

“I am,” Lup says, and she sticks her snout in his bag and grabs an Oran Berry, snarfing it down. “Thanks. How are you doing?”

“Hypno’s losing,” Angus says, “do you want help with the Hariyama?”

Not from Angus, that’s for sure. He’s weak already to most of Hariyama’s attacks. “If you think you can finish off Hypno, then have Barry help me,” she says, and she turns back to her own fight when the crackle of her vortex fades away.

Fire, fire—she builds it up in her and lobs an ember at the Hariyama, but it retaliates and manages to shove her back a few feet. She bumps up against Barry, who takes a final look at the Hypno before joining her against the Hariyama.

The confused one stumbles back into the fray, having shaken off its confusion, but by then, Lup and Barry have a strategy—fighting moves don’t hurt him, so he protects Lup while she hangs back and provides ranged support in the form of fire.

It works, way better than just her alone did, and soon, they’ve got two fainted Hariyama, and a near-faint Hypno. The three of them surround him, and the Hypno glares bloody murder, but can’t really do anything.

“You wanna do the honors?” Lup asks, nosing Angus, and the little pup beams.

“Case closed!” he yaps, and he delivers one final bite to Hypno that knocks him out for good. Angus looks down at him, proud, before he turns to Barry and Lup. “I don’t know how you knew I was in trouble,” he says, “but thanks for helping me. It was a little scary for a second there.”

“A little?” Barry asks, “I was scared, and I more or less knew what I was getting in to!” He floats between Hypno and the Hariyama. “What should we do about them?”

“What does the guild do with criminals?” Lup asks. She sits down, feels the ache in her muscles.

“I’m not sure,” Barry admits. “Angus, could you go back to Treasure Town and tell the guild what’s going on? Then they could send someone up to help us with these three.” He gestures to the three knocked-out outlaws, and Angus nods.

“Okay!” he says. “Oh! The Kecleon brothers, the stuff stolen from them is in a little cave back there,” he points further down the peak, “when I went to get it, that’s when Hypno found me out. I wasn’t careful enough.” He looks down at his paws, and frowns. “I don’t know how I missed that…”

“Hey, it’s fine,” Lup says, “you got this far, didn’t you? Why don’t you join us at the guild? You’re obviously skilled enough, if you found Hypno all on your own, and if you were at the guild you could have help, rather than do stuff all alone.”

“I’m too young to join the guild right now,” Angus says, but he brightens, a little. “But I want to when I’m old enough! You really think I could do it?”

“Hell yeah I do,” Lup tells him, wagging her tails. “Now, you go to Treasure Town so we can be done with this, and I can go pass out.”

“Haha, okay,” Angus says, and he begins making his way towards the path down.

“Oh, wait!” Barry calls, and Angus turns. “I almost forgot. Your defense scarf, you left it near the Kecleon shop.”

“Thanks!” Angus calls back, and he hurries down the peak. Lup watches him until she can’t see anymore, and she slumps so she’s laying down on the cool stone.

“I’m so glad we saved him in time,” she says, and Barry settles down at her side.

“I am, too,” he says. “But Lup…that means that vision you saw, it was showing you the future. Do you know how it happened?”

“I touched Angus’s scarf,” Lup says, “and then everything went woozy and painful, and I heard a scream, and I saw the vision.”

“Should we tell someone?” Barry asks. He touches an arm to her shoulder, and if Lup had the strength, she’d lean into it, but a day of climbing and fighting and headaches is hitting her pretty hard, right now. She doesn’t want to move.

“Not yet,” Lup says, “I just…what if it’s connected to me being a human at one point? I don’t really want to tell anybody that. I know you believe me, but…”

“Other’s might not,” Barry finishes, and she nods. “That makes sense. I guess…so far, it’s only happened once. Let me know if it happens again? We might be able to save someone else.”

“Ugh, I hope it’s not as painful next time,” Lup says, but she smiles up at Barry, and his eye crinkles up in a returning grin. She’s so glad she met him, and that he believes her, and that she isn’t stuck doing all of this by herself. There’s a little thing in her heart that’s telling her she doesn’t like being alone, and she’s inclined to believe it. Maybe human-her had nobody, and now that she has somebody, doesn’t want her to let them go.

“I should go gather up the Kecleon brother’s things,” Barry says. “Do you want to wait here?”

Lup nods. “You can bring everything out here,” she says, since they don’t have a bag. “I’ll yell if I need help?”

“Please do,” Barry says, and he moves away from her, taking his comforting touch with him. Lup wants to watch him as he goes and enters the cave Angus pointed out, but she needs to keep an eye on Hypno and the Hariyama, to make sure they don’t do something stupid like wake up again.

It takes Barry a few trips to get everything out, but eventually he does, so the two of them wait with a pile of apples and scarfs and berries and TMs around them. Lup leans into Barry, letting him support her weight, and they watch as the sun sets and night comes out. Outside, she can see the stars even better than she could in her room, and they’re just as beautiful as she remembers.

She traces shapes between them with a sharp claw, and Barry listens as she bullshits stories behind the stars. When she’s done, he tells her about the cave the stolen items were stuffed in—there were some older carvings on the wall. Nothing special, just a few lakes, but interesting, nonetheless.

They don’t wait for too long—maybe an hour at most—before the sky is blotted out by a pale shape, and Davenport lands on the peak beside them. Magnus and Julia hop off of his back, and Barry’s already helping Lup to her paws as they head over to greet them.

Barry explains everything that happened, and Magnus and Julia gather up the stolen goods in a large bag, and then drag along the three outlaws, and soon they’re all on Davenport’s back and soaring back to Treasure Town. It’s a view, from so up high, but Lup’s too tired to really appreciate it.

They make it back to the guild, and Lup heads straight for her nest. She’s asleep before her head has even touched the straw.

She wakes up early next morning to Julia’s call. She feels refreshed, most of her wounds having healed overnight, and she shakes away her sleepiness. She peeks out the window, before they go, at the soft pinks of today’s sunrise. Barry joins her, for a moment, before Julia calls one final time, and she scoops up their bag as they run out

Davenport is already out of his room when the two of them arrive, taking two empty spots near the back. Lup fixes the bag around her neck, and pricks her ears to better listen.

“There is once again nothing new on the time gears,” he starts, “but today, Team mmmMMM JaLa will be heading off on an exploration to investigate some ruins with a possible connection to the time gears. Team Blup, yesterday, successfully managed to take down three outlaws and protect the child said outlaws had been trying to attack.”

He offers the two of them a smile, and Lup preens at the applause and cheers they get from the other members of the guild. Their first day, and they already stopped outlaws! It is pretty impressive. As long as she doesn’t almost die, again.

“Other than that, everyone, continue on with your normal duties. However, Barry and Lup, I have a mission for you, so please stay here for just a few more minutes. Good luck, everyone!”

Lup watches as Magnus, Julia, Lucretia, and the fourth member of their team, Merle the Torterra, all head up the ladder. Hopefully they find something. But, for now, Lup goes to Davenport, Barry at her side.

“I know it’s only your second day,” Davenport starts, “but you proved yourself capable yesterday, and Magnus told me that you especially, Lup, expressed an interest in helping to find the time gears. Barry, I assume you’re on the same page as her?”

“I am,” Barry says, nodding.

“Good. Then, may I see your map?”

Lup tugs it out of their bag, and rolls it out in front of them. With one giant wing-finger, Davenport points to a waterfall a bit a-ways from Treasure Town. “The other day, Lucretia was looking through the guild’s old records, and she found references to a cave in this area, with carvings that seemed to describe a time gear,” he says. “I would like you two to investigate this area, and try to find that carving, so that we can find and protect the time gear it is referencing.”

“Um, I have a question,” Lup asks, and Davenport looks to her. That’s a bit terror-inducing, but she’s got Barry and Davenport helped them out yesterday, so she shoves her fear aside. “Aren’t you the Guildmaster? Do you know anything about this cave? Follow up question, how old is the guild?”

“I’m Guildmaster now, and the guild is nearing 300 years old, but I don’t always serve as Guildmaster,” he explains, “only sometimes. Whenever this cave was found, it wasn’t when I was around, so I don’t know any more about it than what was written. I can show you the notes taken on it, though you cannot take them with you.”

“Okay,” Lup says, “thanks.” She takes back the map, and stuffs it back in their bag. Davenport goes into his room, and comes out with a peeling notebook, bound together with twine and with pages sticking out.

“Page 19,” Davenport says, “I’d open it, but.” He waves a wing, one wing-finger bigger than the entire notebook. “When you’re done, just put the book back in my office, and you can go get ready and head out as soon as possible.”

“We will,” Barry says, unwrapping the twine and opening the book. “We’ll do our best.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Davenport says, and he returns to his room, leaving the two of them alone on the bottom floor of the guild.

“Okay,” Barry says, as he carefully flips to page 19. Lup can’t read a single word on any page, but she can see a few pictures—one that might be Moltres, one depicting several islands, and one that shows a tower reaching into the sky. There are two pictures on page 19—the waterfall Davenport showed them on their map, and what Lup assumes is a time gear.

These letters are different from the ones Lucretia used to write their names in, more footprints than lines and curves.

“It’s on footprint runes,” Barry says, “give me a second…” he runs a hand down the page as he reads. “Me and my partner discovered a hidden cave. In that cave, there was a beautiful carving, depicting quite a strange object. This object was circular, with six square protrusions. My partner has drawn it for clarity. Neither of us have ever seen an object like this one, and despite looking in the cave, we couldn’t find it. We asked around, but nobody else seems to know what it is.”

“Huh,” Lup says, when Barry finishes. She stares at the simple drawing of the time gear. “I wish they said where the cave was.”

“Would’ve made this trip easier,” Barry agrees, closing the journal. “We might as well head out, now.”

He puts the journal back in Davenport’s room, and the two of them get ready—take a few Oran Berries and Apples from the guild’s stock, just in case, before they set off for the waterfall. The trip there takes about an hour, but the terrain is mostly flat, following a rushing river, and for that, Lup is grateful.

They make it to the waterfall, and begin looking around it, but there’s nothing but river and forest, no caves. Lup stands at the cliff overlooking the waterfall, frowning. She could reach out a paw and touch the water, if she so desired.

“The water’s coming down pretty hard,” Barry says, in more of a yell over the roar of the water. Lup nods. Anyone who fell into the waterfall…well, it would suck to be them, that’s for sure.

“There’s no sign of a cave anywhere,” Lup says, lashing her tails. “Just water and river and forest. But we can’t just go back with nothing! Davenport trusted us with this!”

“I know,” Barry says, and he joins her at the edge of the cliff. “Maybe…it was in footprint runes, so that account was at least a hundred years old. Maybe the cave was blocked off, or something like that?”

“I hope not,” Lup mutters, and she slaps at the waterfall with a paw. A few droplets splash Barry, and he laughs.

“I don’t think this is the smartest spot to start a water fight,” he says.

“I know, I know,” Lup says, and she steps away from the roaring rush. She’s got a headache coming on, probably from how loud everything is. Maybe they should break and eat, and come at this a little later with fresh minds.

Her vision blurs, a bit, goes red around the edges, and Lup catches herself before she stumbles. Her headache is pounding, now, and she squeezes her eyes shut. This is what happened when she saw Angus in trouble! Oh, no, is she—

A scream, and then she’s seeing yet another scene from above. It’s dark, this time, but it’s the same waterfall the two of them are at. There’s the shadowy shape of a Pokémon, but it’s too dark to make out who they are, though they’re a similar shape and size to Lup. Is it her? She can’t tell.

The Pokémon shakes themselves, and takes a running jump into the waterfall. Lup couldn’t cry out even if she wanted to, but it turns out to be pointless—a blink and she’s seeing the same shadowed Pokémon roll to a stop in a cave, the waterfall behind them. It stands, rubs a paw over their ear, and continues forward.

She comes back to herself, and she’s still standing, this time, Barry hovering around her and frantic with worry. “Lup!” he calls, when he sees her eyes open. “Was that…?”

“Another vision,” she confirms. “This one…I saw a Pokémon jump into the waterfall, and come out in a cave on the other side.”

“Jump…into the waterfall?” Barry asks, and he glances the roaring waterfall. “Are you sure?”

“Yup,” Lup says, and she shakes away the last lingering remnants of her headache. “I couldn’t tell who the Pokémon was, but they looked like me.”

“Was it you?” Barry asks. He floats back a few feet, giving her some space, and she stretches.

“I don’t think so,” Lup says, “because then I would’ve seen you jumping in, too. Maybe it’s just another Pokémon who’s going to come here after us, in which case…maybe we should hurry?”

“Just…jumping into a waterfall,” Barry says. “I trust you, Lup, but…”

“Yeah, it’s not the smartest idea when you say it aloud,” she says. “If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to. I can go in myself.”

“No,” Barry says, and he shakes his head, eye narrowed. “I won’t let you do it alone.” He looks at the waterfall. “Okay. We’ll have to go at full-speed, or we won’t make it and we’ll just get stuck underwater.”

“On three,” Lup agrees, and she braces herself to run. “One…two…THREE!”

They charge for the waterfall, together, and Lup leaps, her paws pushing off rock, and then she’s in the waterfall, and she can’t hear anything but water in her ears, and then she slams against something cold.

She pushes herself to her feet, and looks around for Barry. He’s there, too, slumped near the cave wall, and she rushes over to him.

“Barry? You didn’t get knocked out, did you?”

“Ugh…no,” he says, and he lifts off the ground and returns to his hovering. “I’m fine.” He looks around the cave they’ve found themselves in. It’s dark, and there’s pools of water that border a stone path that leads deeper inside. “Wow,” he says.

“Yeah, useful ability I have,” Lup says, and she trots over to the stone path, waiting for Barry to catch up, before the two of them set off into the cave. “If only I knew how it worked.”

“Well, what triggered it?” Barry asks, “or is it just random?”

“The first time, it was after I touched Angus’s scarf,” Lup says, thinking, “and this time…I touched the water. I have to touch something? But why would it only work on those two things, and not, like, your Relic Fragment? That seems mysterious.”

She sighs, kicking at a loose pebble as they head deeper into the cave. “I guess it’s just a little thing that might come in handy, if we get lucky. Maybe I’ll start touching random objects if we’re ever lost.”

“Might be a good idea,” Barry comments, and they lapse into silence as they continue into the cave. It’s a comfortable silence, the only sounds the patter of Lup’s pawsteps and the trickle of water. The cave is long, but it’s just one tunnel, no branching paths, which makes the journey easy. Lup’s not sure how long they’ve been in the cave, but it grows dark, until she can only see by the faint light Barry’s eye emits.

Lup thinks about her weird power to see the future. Who was the Pokémon she saw jump into the cave? She’s pretty sure it wasn’t her—that Pokémon was alone, while she and Barry came in together. So, who are they? They must’ve known something about the cave, if they were so willing to jump into a waterfall.

Another Pokémon of the guild? Maybe. Or was that the time gear thief?

Lup snarls. Good thing they came here first, then. That thief can’t be allowed to stop time anywhere else.

“Lup, there’s a dead end up ahead,” Barry calls, and Lup slows. His eye casts a dim red glow over the wall, and Lup conjures up a little fire of her own, and lets it hang in the air nearby rather than being used to attack and burn an enemy. With their combined lights, it’s easier to see the wall.

Lup steps back, and studies the carving.

It’s a forest, all tall trees overlapping each other, and it spreads out across the back wall. There’s Pokémon, too—a pack of Houndoom all napping under a tree, a Ninetails sitting at the edge of a river. It’s beautiful, and the firelight that flickers over it gives the impression of trees in wind.

But in the center of the carving, Lup sees the time gear. It’s hovering, suspended over a pile of rocks, a pattern of sorts surrounding it and attaching to twisting vines nearby.

“Lup,” Barry says, and he sounds horrified, “this is Treeshroud Forest.”

“What?” Lup says, “but that would mean…”

It’s a forest, that’s for sure, but surely there’s other forests! If the thief found this cave before they did…how? Even Davenport didn’t know where it was, and he’s a god! And what about her vision? She saw a Pokémon entering the cave, but…

But can she only see the future?

“Do you think my vision was of the past?” Lup asks, going up to the wall to run a paw along the carving of the time gear. Funny, to think such a little object could control something as important as time. “And that Pokémon, that was the thief?”

“That would make sense,” Barry says. “Explains how they knew there was a time gear in Treeshroud Forest.” He looks at her, and Lup blinks away tears. They were too late. They were a week too late.

“This can’t be allowed to keep happening,” Lup says, voice tight as she steps back from the wall, and studies the scene. Treeshroud Forest…there’s no sunrise, anymore. No daylight. No tracing patterns in stars.

It’s darkness, and it’s frozen. Nobody has the right to do that to someone’s home. To decide to stop time everywhere.

“We should go back,” Barry says, and Lup takes a deep breath when she feels his soft touch on her back. “Tell Davenport about this. Keep looking. There are other time gears, Lup. We failed on this one, but…”

“I hope Lucretia and her team find something,” Lup says, dispelling her flames as they turn to walk back out of the cave. “I hope…I hope we find the Pokémon who’s doing this. I want to be the one to stop them.”

“Not that I don’t agree with you, because I do,” Barry says, “but is there any reason you feel so strongly about this? Do you think it has something to do with your amnesia?”

“I don’t know,” Lup says, “it’s just, when I saw that sunrise our first morning together, it was like I was…seeing it for the first time. And it made me realize that all the Pokémon in Treeshroud Forest, that area is never going to see sunrise again unless we do something. I think…to take away all the light in this world, because you’re an evil Pokémon…I hate it. Whoever this thief is, this criminal that is stealing time gears, I hate them.”

She reaches up a paw to brush against the cool metal of her exploration team badge. “I feel like this is why I’m here,” she says, “maybe I am from Treeshroud Forest, maybe I’m not, but when I think about what I want to do, I want to prevent the stopping of time. Maybe I’ll never get my memory back or figure out why I was turned into a Pokémon, but I also feel like that doesn’t matter. As long as I can do something to help this world, my world…then I will.”

Barry’s quiet, all throughout her speech, and when she finishes, he nods, so faint she can barely see it. And it’s less of a nod, more of his eye bobbing up in down, but, same idea. “I’ll be there with you,” he says.

“Good,” Lup replies, and she rears up to bump her snout against the bottom of Barry’s skull. “I wouldn’t want to do all of this alone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when assigning pokemon to everyone i kinda. forgot julia. so she's a luxio for no good reason. actually, most pokemon people got was for reasons like 'haha dragon' or 'oh this bug looks like a violin' so like. it's not really deep. avi is a rockruff bc avi is a chill guy and rockruffs also look chill. lup is a vulpix because fire. the only person with any meaning behind who they are is barry, and that's because i saw a shiny duskull and knew, in that moment, nothing else could be so perfect. 
> 
> oh, yeah, im not sure if it was obvious or not, but hypno and the hariyama were jenkins and the meat monsters. follow up: why the fuck can hariyama learn brine. you are a fighting type pokemon. who decided that bc i just wanna talk. 
> 
> okay. that's all i've got, right now. i hope all three of you enjoy this niche au. chapter three in a week or so!


	3. The Mystery of Fogbound Lake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lup's standing in a place she's never been, but all she can think is _I know this forest._

The days pass in an anxious monotony. Lup and Barry spend their days doing odd jobs around town, like the rest of the remaining guild members. Everyone knows: somehow the thief discovered the waterfall cave before the guild did. Lup doesn’t mention her vision, but even without that, the evidence is overwhelming. A cave showing the location of a time gear the thief stole—of course the thief would know about it.

With half the guild gone, and no news about the time gears or the progress of Team mmmMMM JaLa, there aren’t morning meetings. Lup still wakes early, jumps up on the windowsill and pushes open the window, to watch the sunrise and feel the morning breeze ruffle her fur. Barry joins her, settling in the leftover space, and it’s nice, to have these quiet early hours together, before heading off to help Pokémon in need.

They don’t see Davenport, much. Lup asks around, to see if anyone knows what he’s doing, but nobody really knows, though everyone agrees that it’s something to do with the time gears. Lup thinks he’s reading old guild records, to see if there’s any other pages that mention strange carvings.

Two weeks later, Lucretia and her team return.

They hold a guild meeting, Davenport and Team mmmMMM JaLa up front, everyone else watching. Lup curls her claws into the grass below her paws, and her tails flick with nerves.

Lucretia is the one to start. “We found the ruins,” she says, “and they were very ruined, even worse than we expected. We believe someone might’ve purposely wrecked them, to try and keep us from learning about the time gears.

“Like the thief?” Killian asks, and Lucretia nods.

“That’s what we suspect. If the thief has already been there, however, it means we have little time to stop them. These ruins were said to contain information on three of the time gears, but we only found information on one.”

Julia steps up, and her tail flicks behind her. “The information we found said there was a time gear at a place called Fogbound Lake,” she says. “But none of us knew what or where Fogbound Lake was, so we asked around, and found an Absol, who told us about it. He was also investigating the time gears, though he didn’t know much more than what we did, and declined to join up with us.”

The Torterra, Merle, speaks next. “To the east, there’s some forest, and it’s always covered in fog, that apparently the plants make themselves. And it’s in that forest somewhere that hides Fogbound Lake. However, there’s a Pokémon there, named Uxie, who’s protector of the time gear, and also the lake. And he can erase memories, which is why nobody’s come across the lake yet.”

“Erase memories?” Lup hisses, meeting eyes with Barry. He looks just as surprised as she does, but shakes his head—not the place. Lup nods and returns to listening.

“But!” Magnus calls. “That’s never stopped us before! So tomorrow, the entire guild is heading off on an expedition, to find Fogbound Lake and warn Uxie about the time gear thief, and provide any support if he asks for it. Also, to ask about the other two time gears we weren’t able to find any information on in the ruins!”

“You’re all dismissed to prepare,” Davenport finishes. “I will be flying, and any Pokémon small enough to ride on my back is welcome to come with me, but we will also have a ground team if you’d rather join them.”

As the guild disperses to prepare, Lup notices Lucretia coming over to them, and she tilts her head.

“Hi, Lucretia,” Barry greets, but the Dragonair just sighs.

“Hi, you two. You went to find those carvings? And you’re sure they were for Treeshroud Forest?”

Barry nods, and Lucretia’s tail slaps against the ground. “Great, great, and if they already found these ruins…” she shakes her head, muttering more to herself than to them. “Just…how is this thief so far ahead of us? There’s so little information out there on time gears, and most of it is only recorded in the guild’s records!”

“Are you suggesting one of us is the thief?” Lup asks, bristling.

“No, I don’t think that,” Lucretia says, “I’m just…worried. I’m hoping the thief missed the time gear at Fogbound Lake. But…but if they already saw the ruins, why have they only stolen the one? Or are we all just jumping to the worst conclusions?”

“Hey,” Lup says, interrupting her, “do you need, like, a nap, or something?”

“Sleep would be wonderful if I had the time for it,” Lucretia says. She bobs her head, the little wings atop it flattening. “Sorry, sorry. You two should go prepare. We don’t know what to expect.”

She hurries away, into Davenport’s room, and Lup frowns. “I hope she’s okay,” she says, “but…”

“Nothing we can do,” Barry agrees, “the best we can do is prepare and help as much as we can to find this time gear.”

“Yeah,” Lup agrees, and they hurry off to prepare.

The entire guild is awake early next morning, and Lup’s buzzing with anticipation as she climbs onto Davenport’s back, and settles down next to one of the plates down his back. Barry sits next to her—actually sits, doesn’t just hover—and once everyone who’s riding with Davenport is situated, he takes off into the sky.

They’re all meeting up at a base camp, the sky team and the ground team. The sky team will arrive first, and set up camp while the ground team makes their way there, and then they’ll split into groups and explore the fog-covered forest.

Lup doesn’t talk much, on the trip there, only to Barry, because the guild members she knows the most—Magnus and Julia—are on the ground team, and Lucretia is up with Davenport and Lup’s almost certain she didn’t sleep at all last night. She’s worried for her fellow guild member, but she gets it. This time gear stuff is uncertain, and Lucretia has been following this lead for weeks now. If they get there and the time gear is already gone…then what?

Lup rests her head on her paws and sighs. The view is amazing, again, a brilliant blue sky, and right now, they’re flying over a mountain range, one that Barry says runs across the entire continent.

“But they’re broken up in the middle by Treeshroud Forest,” he adds, quieter, and Lup looks over Davenport’s side and sees the forest. The trees look gray and dark, not a hint of color, and she knows in her heart that if they got closer, the sky would grow dark, too, and there’d be no wind or sun or anything.

She’s not going to let this time gear get stolen, not if she can do anything about it. She’s just one Vulpix, sure, but she’ll have Barry with her and that’s twice the odds that she can beat this thief. No matter how tricky they are, it’s just one Pokémon. They have numbers on their sides, and also, Lugia himself.

The sun is setting by the time they set down in a thickly-fogged clearing, that, according to what they were told that morning, is on the outskirts of Foggy Forest, as Julia dubbed it. Barry and Lup grab their tent, and find an empty spot to start setting it up in. Each team gets their own tent, which is good. Lup’s used to sharing a room with Barry, but nobody else at the guild.

Halfway through setting up their tent, Lup stops to take a break, going to grab some water from a small stream nearby. She settles down at the stream’s edge to lap some up, and then she freezes. She’s…she looks around, at the trees she can barely see through the thick fog, and there’s…something. A sensation.

She looks back at the stream, sees the rippled mess of her face staring back up at her, and is hit with a memory that’s more feeling than images. Pride, not in herself but in someone else, and, and…

It’s gone before she can grasp anything else, leaving her with an echo deep in her bones that says _you know this forest._

She pushes it aside and returns to Barry. Weird memory stuff, whatever. It’s not important right now.

They finish setting up their tent an hour or so later, and join the rest of the guild for dinner, before heading off to bed. The ground team hasn’t arrived, but they’re expected to arrive around moonhigh, so Lup’s not too worried about them.

“Hey, Barry?” Lup asks, because they’ve got some time for themselves and she’s got some things she wants to talk about. “Do you think…this Uxie. Do you think I met him and that’s why I lost my memory?”

“Hmm,” Barry says, rolling over in his nest to face her, his eye the only light in their tent. “Like, you got lost and stumbled across Fogbound Lake? Or you were trying to find it?”

“I think…I don’t know,” she says, “what if…what if I was trying to find the time gear?” She presses her head into the straw of her bed. It’s not as soft as the one back at the guild. “Just…when I went to get water earlier, I felt like I’d been here before. And…what if we find Fogbound Lake and it turns out I’m the Pokémon that’s been stealing time gears?”

“Lup…” Barry says, but she pushes on.

“Think about it! When we were at that cave, the Pokémon I saw jump into the waterfall, it really did look like me! And that was the time gear stolen. And there’s been no news on any more time gear thefts…what if I was the thief?”

“You aren’t the thief, Lup,” Barry says, and he says it with such conviction that she looks up at him with a start. “You lost your memory, yes, but that wouldn’t change who you are at your very core. And the first thing you did when you found out that time was stopping was to decide that the thief had to be stopped! You’re a good Pokémon, Lup. I don’t believe you would ever do something so horrible like steal time gears.”

“But what if?” Lup whimpers. “Why else would I recognize this place?”

“I don’t know,” Barry says, “maybe you visited, at one point, but also, Lup, you used to be a human, remember? Despite all of this, if you don’t believe anything I said about you being a good Pokémon…then at least know that. The thief is a Pokémon, maybe another Vulpix, or a Pokémon with a similar shape, but it’s not a human.”

“Oh,” Lup says, feeling very, very stupid, so much so that the rush of relief that courses through her isn’t enough to counteract it. “I kind of…forgot. About that.” She buries her head in her paws, out of embarrassment, this time. “That’s dumb of me.”

“No, it’s not,” Barry says, “you’ve been living as a Vulpix for, what, two weeks, now? And you don’t remember anything about being a human. It makes sense. This life is more real than whatever one you had before, because it’s the one you remember and the one you’re living.”

“I guess,” Lup says, but…he’s right, isn’t he? Whoever she was when she was a human, that Lup is dead and gone, now. This Lup, this her, that’s who she’s living as right now. When she looks at her paws, they’re her paws. When she sees her face, it’s her face. “Yeah. Yeah! This is who I am, and I’m not the time gear thief!”

She tosses her head, her tails wagging a bit, and Barry laughs, smiling. She likes his laugh. It’s not scary, like she at first expected coming from someone who’s a floating skull with a red cape, but a lot gigglier and snortier.

Lup grins. “I’m glad it was you who found me on the beach, Barry.”

“Me too,” Barry says. “We should go to sleep. I’m sure the rest of the guild is going to be confused as to why you were yelling about not being the time gear thief.”

“When we catch the real thief,” Lup starts, “I’m going to set their dumb stupid face on fire for making me doubt myself like this.”

“Even if they’re a Vulpix?” Barry asks, and Lup pauses.

“Huh,” she says, “if they’re a Vulpix, then I’ll hit them with all my non-fire attacks, and for this one, you get to help.”

“I’d love to, Lup,” Barry says, smiling. “Goodnight?”

“Yeah,” she agrees, curling up and tucking her nose under her tails. “Goodnight.”

* * *

Their exploration starts early the next morning, and after a quick briefing that’s just recap—small teams, find Fogbound Lake and Uxie—Barry and Lup set off into the forest. They pick a path at random, since it doesn’t matter, and start exploring.

Lup can’t shake off the creeping feeling that she’s been here, before, but it’s unhelpful other than that. She doesn’t know where to go, or what to do, she just knows that, at one point, she maybe set paw in this forest. Thanks, memories.

“Hey, Lup,” Barry calls, and Lup stops, turning around. Barry’s a few paces back, staring at something, and she trots over to join him. Once she’s there, he points to what he’s looking at—a red, sparkling stone that’s hidden in a patch of wild flowers. “I think it might be a gem?”

“It’s pretty,” Lup says, sniffing it. Smells like a gem. It’s warm against her nose, though, which is weird. “Is it warm to you?”

Barry touches the stone, and frowns. “Huh. It is. I wonder what type of gem it is?”

“Are there volcanoes around here?” Lup asks, and Barry shakes his head.

“No…maybe someone dropped it?” He picks it up, turns it over in his hands. “We might as well take it, for now. If it belongs to someone at the guild, they’ll ask about it, and if not, we can just keep it.”

Barry tucks it into the bag Lup’s carrying, and Lup can feel the gem even through the bag, warm against her flank. She hums. It feels rather nice, not unpleasantly hot. Maybe they can keep it in their room back at the guild and use it to warm their nests when it gets colder.

With the gem secure, they resume their exploration. The fog here is so thick they can’t see more than a few feet in front of them, so there isn’t any way to chart out a path to take. Instead, they just wander forwards, and hope they’ll come across something eventually.

Lup’s not sure how long they wander. They end up back at the base camp, once, which is empty other than the Rockruff, Avi.

“Where’s Johann?” Lup asks, because she knows the two of them are an exploration team, though she hasn’t yet figured out their team’s name.

“Dunno,” Avi says, “we got separated. I’ve been waiting to see if he’ll come back, but I don’t even know how I got back here, so I might just go back in.”

“The fog’s too thick to really see anything,” Barry agrees, and the two of them bid Avi farewell as they reenter the forest.

He’s hovering rather close to her, Barry is, and while Lup isn’t complaining, he usually tends to float a bit higher, so he’s just a bit taller than her, the bottom of his cape about head-level with her. Speaking of, he can float!

“Barry,” Lup says, “could you float up and see if there’s anything you can see?”

He glances up. “The fog is really thick,” he says. “I don’t want to get separated.”

“Point, but…wandering around won’t help much,” she says, “I’ll burn a fire? So, you can see that?” To prove her point, she conjures up those little flames again, lets them burn in a steady circle around her.

“That should work,” he says, “alright, I’ll see if I can get above the fog. Don’t move.”

“Wasn’t going to!” Lup calls as Barry floats up and out of sight. She sits down, her flames still burning bright, and flattens her ears. It’s too quiet, in this forest, and her vision is too obscured, and it’s so, so much worse alone. Barry better come back soon. Even if he doesn’t find anything.

The fur along Lup’s back prickles. She feels like she’s being _watched,_ and she hates that, too. She doesn’t think she is—the guild members are the only Pokémon here, as far as she knows, but…still. She shivers.

When Barry descends, she’s up on her hind paws in an instant, pawing at the air until she finally connects with the bottom of his cape, and steadies herself on that, her tails wagging. Barry laughs, and floats down faster so she can bump her snout against his skull, and then drop back onto all fours before she topples over.

“You were right,” she says, “that was very bad. I felt like I was being watched?” She looks around, but that uncomfortable prickling is gone. “I think I hate being alone.”

“It was bad up there, too,” Barry says, and he offers an arm for her to wrap her paws around. “Everything was fog, all I could see was your fires, and then the fires from the base camp, which is back that way.” He points off to their right. “I didn’t see anything else.”

“It was pointless, then,” Lup says, and she lets Barry free, shaking herself. “Sorry.”

“Worth a shot,” Barry says, shrugging. “We know not to head right.”

“Yeah…maybe left, then?” Lup offers. “If camp is at the outskirts, heading away from it should bring us closer to the center.”

“Hey, it’s a better idea than mine, which was mostly to just pick a direction and hope for the best,” Barry says, grinning. “Let’s go.”

They head left, for a while, or at least, hopefully they do. Neither of them really wants to be separated again, so no more of Barry going up into the air. But they stick left, and they try not to get turned around, and considering they haven’t ended up back at base camp, they’re doing a pretty good job.

It comes to a point where Lup stops, and pricks her ears. She’s got better hearing than Barry, who has no visible ears, so he stops next to her, and goes quiet.

Faint roaring, Lup can hear. Not of an animal, but of water. It’s coming from deeper the direction they were already heading.

“I think there might be a river, or something,” Lup says, keeping forward. She leaves her ears pricked, straining to pick up the roar of water, but it’s hard to lose once she’s got it. It just keeps getting louder, and eventually, even Barry can hear it, and they’re running full-speed for the roaring of water that is too loud to be just a simple river.

They emerge into a treeless clearing, and Lup skids to a stop. The roaring is from waterfalls—four of them that she can see, all coming from somewhere up. When she tilts her head back to the sky, the source of the waterfalls disappears into the fog.

“This is beautiful,” Barry breathes, and Lup can only nod. “Do you think we’re close?”

“We have to be somewhere important,” Lup says, stepping forward to dab her paws in one of the little pools the waterfalls feed into. The water is cool to the touch, and crystal clear. She sees Barry’s reflection float up beside her, and she skims her paws across the surface, sending ripples to distort both their faces. “Where do you think—”

She’s cut off by an excited shout. “Lup! Barry!”

“Magnus?” Barry calls, and they turn forwards to see Magnus, up past the waterfalls, waving them over. “Do you know what this place is?”

“Nope!” Magnus says as they rush over to him. “Me and Julia just stumbled across it. She’s up here, at this weird statue we found.”

Magnus leads them past the waterfalls and into a little grassy clearing. In the center is the fallen statue of a large, bulky Pokémon. It’s toppled onto its side, and there’s a few chucks of stone that have obviously fallen off of it.

Julia’s perched on its upturned pedestal, but she hops down when the three of them show up. “Hey! Either of you happen to know who this Pokémon is? I think I’ve maybe seen a drawing of it before, but that’s all.” She stands beside Magnus, wrapping her tail with his.

“I think…” Barry floats closer to the statue. “I think it’s Groudon,” he says.

“GROUDON!” Julia yells, leaping forwards, her tail untwining from Magnus’s to lash. “Fuck, I knew I’d seen that Pokémon before!” She paces in a circle around the statue. “Legend says Groudon was the one to bring land from sea! Do you think he lives here?”

“In a bad forest?” Magnus asks.

“I mean, maybe he likes it,” Julia counters, “you don’t know him.”

Lup leaves the two of them to bicker playfully, and joins Barry at the statue. “Do you think the statue is a clue?” she asks.

“It’s a dead end up here,” Barry says, “it has to be, right? Why else would it be here?”

“Someone really liked Groudon?” Lup offers, but she shakes herself. “Hey, I could try touching it, see if I get another one of those weird visions. Might reveal something.”

“Do you mind?” Barry asks. “I know they hurt you.”

“Eh, the last one wasn’t as bad as the first,” Lup says, “I think it’s something that I get more used to the more I use it. And I also want to find Fogbound Lake! A headache is worth it if we get to save a time gear.”

She approaches the statue, and places a paw to its surface. The stone is rough underpaw, and with Barry staring at her, the situation feels a lot grander than it really is. She drops her paw after a few seconds, and sure enough, she feels a headache starting up, and her vision goes red, and then she hears a scream.

This time, though, she doesn’t open her eyes and see a scene. Instead, she sees darkness, and hears a voice.

_Reignite the life?_ the voice asks. A pause, like it’s listening to someone. _Yeah, yeah, metaphors and all that, I’m not an idiot. Well, we have the Drought Stone, so I’ll just…stick it. In his heart. This feels weird._ Another pause, and the voice laughs. _This better fucking work._

Lup blinks open, and takes a step back from the statue. That voice…has she heard it before? It isn’t anybody she knows, but there’s something about it she feels she should recognize.

The familiarity is gone before she can think more about it, and she instead focuses on the words. Drought Stone? She and Barry did find a gem, is that the Drought Stone? And to stick it in his heart…

Lup circles around to the front of the statue, brushing some vines off of its chest. And—there! An indent, right where the heart should be! She reaches up with a paw and claws at the strap of the bag until she turns it around, and then ducks her head to let it slip off. From there, it’s easy enough to grab that red stone in her jaws, and wave Barry over with her tails.

“What did you find out?” he asks, and he takes the stone when she drops it into his hands.

“I heard a voice,” she says, “it said that you have to put the Drought Stone in Groudon’s heart, and there’s an indent right where the heart would be.”

“Hey, what are we doing?” Magnus asks, he and Julia joining them.

“Putting a stone in Groudon’s heart,” Lup says, and she steps back to give Barry room to push the stone into the heart of the statue.

It’s still, for a second, but then the statue’s eyes glow red, and Lup leaps back, and she’s proven right when the statue glows a bright, burning white, and the ground starts to rumble.

“What did you do?” Julia yells as they all make a run for it.

“Reignited the life!” Lup answers, and the world turns white.

When everything has calmed down, Lup cracks open her eyes. She’s curled up in a ball on the ground, Barry beside her, Julia and Magnus just past them. And everything is…bright? There’s sunlight beaming down, and she can see, see the waterfalls and the forest around them, when before all of that was just fog.

“The fog’s…gone?” Barry asks, as Lup stands to her feet and turns to look at the statue. It’s gone back to normal, and her bag, that she had forgotten at the foot of it, is unharmed. “Your vision was right, Lup!”

Lup beams at him, feels warm at the pride in his voice.

“Guys!” Magnus says. “Look up!”

Lup does, looks up and up and—oh.

That explains why nobody has ever found Fogbound Lake.

High up in the sky, held up by a thick base of rock that widens into a shape that’s roughly circular, level with the clouds, is a landform. The sides spill over with water, water that makes up the waterfalls all around them.

“Fogbound Lake…” Barry says, and he glances back to the statue. “Oh! There’s an opening in the rock!”

Lup follows his gaze, and sure enough, what was once a wall of cliffside, there’s now an opening in it, like a fissure.

“That must be the way up,” Julia says, looking to the two of them. “You two should go first, we’ll grab the rest of the guild.”

“Are you sure?” Barry asks, and Lup nods her agreement.

“You were the ones who discovered it, it’s only fair,” Magnus says, and with his encouragement, both Lup and Barry enter the fissure, and begin the climb to Fogbound Lake.

It’s warm, in this cave, and the air is thick with humidity. Lup doesn’t mind the heat, and Barry, even though he’s not a fire Pokémon, also seems to be doing just fine. Lup finds herself revitalized—sure, she’s been walking around a forest for what feels like forever, but this is new! And exciting! And hopefully, the fog and the fact that the Drought Stone was still there means the thief hasn’t taken this time gear, not now and not ever!

The climb up is pretty quick, doubly so with Lup jogging most of it, just a tunnel that winds constantly upwards, bordered on either side by thin rivers of water.

“What should we tell Uxie if we meet him?” Lup asks, her heart racing in her chest. “That we’re from the guild and we want to help protect the time gear?”

“I think that works,” Barry agrees, but the both of them come to an abrupt stop when the air is split with a deep roar that rumbles deep in Lup’s flattened ears.

She looks to Barry, wide-eyed.

“I don’t think that one was a waterfall,” she says.

“No,” Barry says. “Here, let’s go slower. Stick close together.”

“Uh-huh,” Lup nods, and they continue their trek upwards, falling into quiet. Every so often, they’re interrupted with another roar, growing louder and louder the further up they climb. But there’s no Pokémon, nobody who could be roaring.

Is that Uxie?

Lup steadies herself. They’re almost at the top, now.

The tunnel opens up into a wide room. The humidity, which before Lup had barely noticed, becomes crushing and oppressive, and Lup sets her teeth in a snarl. She looks to Barry, and there’s fear in his eye that she knows is mirrored in her own.

And that’s when they hear the loudest roar of them all, and the ground starts to shake. No, not shake. Thud. Because they’re footsteps.

In front of them emerges the Pokémon from the statue, Groudon. The shaking stops when it does, looking down at them with thick scales of deep red, sharp horns and claws. It’s not as big as Davenport, but it’s still big, way bigger than Lup is.

_I hate being this small,_ she thinks. But she can feel Barry at her side, and that alone is enough to fill her with courage.

“Groudon!” she calls, and the giant looks down at her, waiting. “We’re here to see Fogbound Lake.”

“WHAT?” Groudon says, and its voice shakes Lup to her very core. “FOGBOUND LAKE? LEAVE NOW, AND I WILL SPARE YOUR LIVES.”

“Please,” Barry says, “we need to see Uxie and the time gear—”

“YOU HAVE COME FOR THE TIME GEAR?” Groudon snarls. “THEN YOU DON’T HAVE THE OPTION TO TURN BACK.”

“Barry, I don’t know how to fight that,” Lup says, bracing herself for battle.

“You and me both, Lup,” he says, “together?”

She nods, and thinks. Any attack Groudon throws at them, she’s going to be weak to, so…ranged support it is. She launches a few small flames Groudon’s direction, to burn it, and it turns to her with a roar. She’s unable to dodge the mud it lobs at her, and yup, that fucking hurts. She bites back a whine of pain, falling back behind Barry.

Barry, because he’s the best Pokémon Lup’s ever met, stays in front of her, and attacks Groudon with a shadow that sneaks up under the floor and startles him.

Confusion, Lup has to get Groudon confused or she’s dead. She leaves Barry to distract it, the two of them trading blows, though Barry does try to avoid what he can. Lup creeps around back, and gets her chance when one of Barry’s attacks causes Groudon to flinch. She lunges forwards, throwing a confuse ray at Groudon along with a small ember, just to get in some extra damage.

And both hit. She cheers, and starts attacking Groudon while it is unable to hit back, its attacks sloppy and wide. She and Barry stay on opposite sides, so it can’t target the both of them, and after another round of confuse ray, they manage to wear it down, and it collapses.

“NO,” Groudon says, “YOU CANNOT…THE TIME gear…it must…”

Groudon shimmers, and explodes in a burst of bright light, and there’s nothing there.

“What?” Barry asks, “it vanished?”

“It didn’t,” says another voice, and Lup jumps backwards into Barry, but he’s able to keep himself steady as she finds her footing again. She was closer to deeper down the tunnel, and hearing a stranger so close to her own ears… “It never was to begin with.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Lup demands, whipping her head around to try and find the speaker. “Who are you!”

“That doesn’t matter,” the voice says, “you might’ve defeated an illusion, but I cannot allow you to go any further.”

“Wait,” Barry says, “wait, please just let us explain! We’re members of the guild, the one Davenport, Lugia, runs. We’re here to help. Time gears are going missing, and we believe there might be a time gear hidden here, and we want to protect it!”

“Lugia, you say,” says the Pokémon. “Interesting. What are your names?”

“I’m Lup, and he’s Barry,” Lup says. “Who are you?”

“…Uxie,” the voice says, “Hmm. I’ll trust you, I think. Come along. Deeper into the tunnel, now.”

“You’re Uxie?” Barry asks, as he and Lup make their way into the tunnel that continues on the other side of the wide room, “the protector of the time gear?”

“That’s me,” Uxie says. The tunnel emerges outside, and Lup’s startled to find that the sun is setting—how long were they climbing up to here? They continue down the rock, bordered on either side by water, and find, at the end of the path, is Uxie.

Uxie floats just like Barry does, and is about the same size as the both of them, with a blue body, yellow head, and two tails. Lup and Barry approach, up to the edge of the path.

“Is this Fogbound Lake?” Barry asks, as Lup stares out over the lake. It’s giant, roaring gentle in her ears as water cascades down the edges of this sky island, the lake illuminated in purples and pinks by the setting sun.

“Yes,” Uxie says, “hiding place of one of the time gears. Look.” He points, to a glowing radiance coming up from under the lake, and Lup and Barry both peer over the edge. There, amidst the blue-green glow, is a time gear, and this one isn’t a carving.

It’s slightly distorted by the water, but it’s turquoise in color, more blue than green, and seeing it makes Lup’s heart race. This, this is what she’s trying to protect. To keep this time gear here, in this lake, and prevent time from stopping.

“It is my job to guard this time gear,” Uxie says, and Lup takes a step back before she falls in. “Several times, Pokémon have trespassed, but I chase them off with my illusions. In the event that doesn’t work, I take their memory.”

“Um,” Lup says, “about the memory thing. How does that work?”

“I remove memories of Fogbound Lake,” Uxie says, “how someone got here, what they found, that sort of thing. I wouldn’t take memories other than that. I don’t have the power to. Why do you ask?”

“No reason,” Lup says. So, she really didn’t come here, or at least, Uxie has nothing to do with her memory loss. It’s…good. To get that extra confirmation. Whoever she is, she’s not a time gear thief.

Barry brushes up next to her, and Lup smiles to herself.

“Very well,” Uxie says. “Now, you are here about the time gear? I assure you, I am well aware that there is a Pokémon who has stolen a time gear, but I don’t need any extra protection. The Treeshroud Forest time gear was unprotected.”

“It was?” Lup asks.

“That’s why is was easily taken,” Uxie says, “the others are all well-protected. That is probably why this thief hasn’t struck since.”

“Are you—” Barry starts, but he’s interrupted by pounding footsteps, and all three of them turn to watch the tunnel.

Out comes Magnus, panting, and Julia just beside him. “Heard…roaring…” he mutters, and he coughs, “ran…as fast as I could…are you okay?”

“We’re great,” Lup says, ignoring the aches in her muscles, “and guess what! We found Uxie!”

“You did?” Julia asks, and she manages to drag both herself and Magnus up to the three of them. “Oh! You’re Uxie!”

“I’m assuming you’re also from the guild?” Uxie asks, and Julia nods.

“We are. There’s more of us coming. Davenport’s flying some of us up, and I think Merle’s climbing, but we heard roaring and ditched him. He can’t run as fast.”

“I cannot!” yells Merle from somewhere deeper in the tunnel, and Magnus snorts. “Did you find them?”

“Everyone’s fine!” Julia yells, “we found Uxie and the lake! Hurry up!”

Davenport and the rest of the guild show up before Merle finally lumbers his way out of the cave, Davenport staying hovering while everyone else crowds around the edge of the rock path to look out over Fogbound Lake. It’s beautiful, that’s for sure.

Lup’s not sure how long she stays there, up at the edge of the water and pressed against Barry. There’s a geyser, that erupts, and that along with the radiance of the time gear make a fountain of water that glows pink and purple, surrounded by glowing, multicolored fireflies, and Lup’s unable to take her eyes off of it. And Uxie just…lives here?

“I can’t imagine seeing this every day,” Barry whispers to her, “just imagine…seeing how big and grand and amazing this all is, and living with it!”

“Yeah,” Lup answers, in hushed awe, and they nestle into each other and watch the sparkling shine of the fountain until it dies down, and it’s time to go.

She doesn’t want to go—she wants to stay here, at the lake under the stars, but that’s not an option she has. She can’t indulge in things like this forever, not when there’s a Pokémon out there planning to put an end to this.

“Are you sure,” Lup overhears Davenport say as she’s climbing onto her back, “that you don’t want us to give you some added protection?”

“I’m sure, Lugia,” Uxie says. “More Pokémon brings more suspicion. Once I remove the Drought Stone from Groudon’s chest, the fog will descend once again, and even if that doesn’t work, I have my illusions to protect me.” He sighs. “And I’m letting these Pokémon keep their memories because you trust them. You must never mention Fogbound Lake to anybody else.”

“I know,” Davenport says, “I want to protect the time gears just as much as you do.”

Lup lays beside one of the plates down his back, and closes her eyes. It’s a day’s trip back to the guild, and she’s been climbing and fighting illusionary Pokémon all day. She deserves to sleep.

She wakes up early the next morning, and shakes Barry awake, and the two of them watch the morning sunrise from high above the clouds.

It’s still the prettiest thing Lup’s ever seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fogbound lake in the games is just....so pretty....love all that good pixel art. but what i don't love? fighting groudon. the first time i played sky my partner was an eevee named lizzy, and like look, i love her, she turned out to be so powerful with her quick attack doing like, 250+ damage a hit, she is the true mvp of my original team. but also her ability is run away and let me fucking tell you. boss battles were a goddamn nightmare. it really is playing the game on hardmode. especially after you die once and just have to keep throwing yourself at bosses with like, no reviver seeds or oran berries, just like, the 20 rocks you found climbing up....its tough. 
> 
> anyways. im so excited for the next chapter, guys. some things are gonna be popping off REAL soon. chapter four should be out in roughly a week or so, but it might be a little longer, since i'll be out of town all next week and wont have as much time.


	4. Absol

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lup and Barry get a new roommate!

They make it back to the guild around midday, meaning the rest of the day is a burner day, since there isn’t much time to start any longer expeditions. The entire guild hangs out at the Café, and Davenport pays for everyone’s drinks, and it’s a good time, in general. Lup sips at what Barry got for her—she doesn’t know what it’s called, but it’s got a bite to it and burns going down, so Lup’s a fan. Barry refuses to drink it, which, eh, spicy isn’t for everyone, but still.

She goes home to her nest in the guild, and collapses asleep in her bed. She’s dead tired when morning meeting is called, but the entire guild is in the same boat, everyone groaning and complaining, so at least it’s not her.

Once everyone is gathered around Davenport, he starts the meeting. “Firstly,” he says, “this should be obvious, but there is to be no discussion of what we saw at Fogbound Lake beyond the walls of this guild, and only with those in this room. As far as we know, the Pokémon stealing time gears knows nothing about the one at Fogbound Lake, and I plan to keep it that way.

“Also, for the foreseeable future, we will have a guest staying at the guild. He will be arriving sometime this afternoon, and will be assisting in our hunt for the time gears. Lucretia?”

She joins him at the front of the room. “He is an Absol,” she says, “and me and my team met him while we were investigating the ruins. He told us the legends behind Fogbound Lake. Along with that, he has also been looking into the time gears.”

“He was from Treeshroud Forest!” Julia adds. “When the time gear was stolen, he wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again. We offered for him to join up with us when we first met him, but he said he preferred to work alone.” She tilts her head. “Wait, when did he agree to join up with us?”

“Yeah,” Merle says, “he seemed pretty intent on not working with us. Didn’t even want to join our expedition.”

“He contacted the guild while we were away,” Lucretia says, “he has possible information on the locations of two other time gears, and admitted that he isn’t equipped to explore these locations alone.”

“Where will he be sleeping?” Julia asks, “because if it’s in the guild, we don’t have any extra rooms, and like, almost all of them are full.”

“He’s staying here,” Davenport says, “which means he’ll have to sleep in an already-occupied room. Of all of us, I think only Barry and Lup have any room. The other rooms are either too full, or too small.”

“We’re getting a roommate?” Lup asks, and Davenport nods. “Huh. Okay.”

“Everyone, back to your normal duties for today,” Davenport says, “we’ll resume our hunt for the time gears tomorrow. Lup, Barry, please stay in or near the guild, so when Absol shows up you can welcome him and show him around. Good luck, everyone!”

The guild disperses, and Lup heads over to the storage room. “I cannot believe we’re getting a roommate,” she says, as she pushes open the little door and starts prowling around for straw. She looks low, Barry looks high. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about this. I like sharing a room with you, you’re my best friend, but a stranger?”

“I’m your best friend?” Barry asks, and his voice squeaks.

“Duh,” Lup says, “who else would it be, Avi? I think I’ve talked to him maybe twice!” She laughs, hopping up onto the table in the center of the room that’s covered with blank papers to bump her nose against Barry’s skull.

He smiles, and wraps his arms around her in a hug, and oh! Lup can fucking use this! She places both forepaws on one of his arms, and nuzzles herself against that side of his body. It’s not the best hug, but she’s trying, okay? And Barry hugs her tighter, so like, she’s doing amazing.

“You are so good, Barry,” Lup says when she drops back to the table, all four paws on the ground. “I’m lucky to have you as my best friend.”

He doesn’t meet her eyes, and if he could, Lup’s pretty sure he’d be blushing. As is, his arms tuck back around and he turns back to looking for straw.

“I’m lucky to have you, Lup,” he says, voice soft, “you’re just...amazing. I feel a lot braver when I’m around you.”

“Right back at you,” Lup answers, and she hops to the floor, feeling giddy and warm inside. “Now, look at this, how are we supposed to have these sweet conversations if we have a roommate?”

“He might not be bad,” Barry says, amused. “We shouldn’t judge him right off the bat.”

“I mean, yes, but also, I like how our room works,” Lup says. “We watch as much of the sunrise as we can, and our mornings are peaceful! How’s another Pokémon gonna change that?” Her paws brush against something soft, and she pulls out the bag of straw.

“I know,” he says, “we just have to be hopeful. And it shouldn’t be forever, anyways. Didn’t Julia mention that he prefers working alone? Maybe he won’t bother us.”

“Yeah,” Lup says, and she grabs the straw. “Found it,” she says, muffled, and the two of them head back to their room, moving their nests to make room for a third. They end up with their nests right under the window, and the third a bit further back, so at least they won’t have to step over someone to watch the sunrise.

Lup steps back to admire their handiwork. The nest for their new roommate is a lot messier than her and Barry’s, but in her defense, she can’t really build a nest when she has to use her mouth to carry things. Barry helped, but even with that, it’s a bit lopsided.

Well, whatever. It’ll still work as a sleeping place.

They mill about the guild while they wait, taking on sentry duty for an hour so Carey and Killian can get a break. Lup finds that she’s awful at identifying footprints, but she is good at opening the gate and yelling loud enough so the guild knows there’s a Pokémon coming in. Barry’s good at footprints, so together, they make a competent sentry team.

“There’s someone here!” Barry calls, and Lup pricks her ears. There’s a script, but there’s also maybe four Pokémon in the guild including them, so it doesn’t matter.

“Who?” Lup asks.

“It’s…oh! Absol,” Barry says, and Lup hops to her paws.

“Okay, I’ll go get him, you should come out,” she says, making her way up the ladder. “Do we have anyone to cover for us?”

“I’ll ask around,” Barry says, and Lup flicks her tails as she climbs up both ladders, and to the entrance of the guild. The bars are still down, but there’s a switch that flicks them up, and she waits as they rumble open.

The first thing Lup notices is that this Absol is taller than her, which is just getting annoying. He’s close to Magnus’s height, but at least Magnus stands on two legs, so his height makes sense. Absol is a four-legged creature like her, and he’s just. Tall.

“Hi,” Lup says, hopping back to let Absol in, “are you the Absol that’s helping us find the time gears?”

“That would be me,” Absol says, “nice to meet you, Vulpix.”

“Lup,” she says, as she makes her way down the ladder. Living at the guild has improved her climbing skills, but Absol is in the same boat she was originally, taking everything slowly. “You’ll be staying with me and my friend, Barry, while you’re here.”

“Alright,” he says, “sorry in advance for intruding, then.” He hops off the last step and onto the ground, but frowns when he sees another ladder. “Is this—”

“The last one, don’t worry,” Lup says, going first. “It gets easier the longer you stay. I had the same trouble you did, at first.”

“Good to know it’s not just me,” Absol says, with a laugh. “This guild wasn’t designed with us four-legged Pokémon in mind, was it?”

“Not at all,” Lup agrees, grinning. He seems nice enough. Maybe he won’t be the worst roommate.

Barry’s waiting for her when she gets down the ladder, and she greets him with a wave of her tails. Once Absol is also down and situated, she introduces them.

“Absol, this is Barry, my friend,” she says, “and Barry, that’s our new roommate, Absol.”

“I’m sorry I’ll be introducing in your space,” he says, paws shuffling.

“Hey, it’s no big deal,” Barry says, “as long as you don’t…scream through the night, or something, we should be fine.”

“I don’t scream in my sleep,” Absol says, amused. “I need to talk to the Guildmaster? Where can I find him?”

“Oh, right in here,” Barry says, floating over to the door. “When you two are done talking, me and Lup can show you around, help get you settled in.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Absol says, and he enters Davenport’s room. Once he’s gone, Lup wanders over to Barry’s side, and the two of them sit back to wait.

“We don’t know his name, yet,” Lup comments, “do you think he’ll tell the entire guild?”

“He might prefer to go by species name,” Barry says. Lup hops up onto the windowsill, leaning against the glass as she keeps an eye on the door. “Not all Pokémon want to give out their name.”

“Yeah, it’s just weird to me,” Lup says, “your name is who you are, to go by something generic…well, I’d never do it.”

“Me neither,” Barry agrees, “I like my name. And besides, there’s another Duskull in town, she goes by Duskull. If there were two of us, it’d get a little confusing. But we shouldn’t be talking about names. What should we show him? The guild and town?”

“Yeah, and maybe tell him about, like, morning meeting and that stuff?” Lup offers, “I’m trying to think of what I would’ve liked to know coming in, but I think you did a pretty good job making me feel comfortable.”

“Oh,” Barry says, “glad I helped.”

“Course you did,” Lup says, hopping down from the windowsill when she hears the creak of the door opening. Absol enters, and she waves him over. “Alright, Absol. Is there anything you need to do, or can we just show you around?”

“No, you can start the tour,” he says. He listens dutifully as Lup and Barry point out everywhere in the guild, which doesn’t take too long, and they start heading outside and down the cliff to get to town.

“If we’re hunting for time gears, you probably won’t spend much time here or in the guild,” Lup says.

“No, Davenport says we’re starting soon?” At Lup’s nod, Absol continues. “That’s for the best, I think. There are quite a few places I want to search. Also, your guild tried to find Fogbound Lake, right? You didn’t find anything?”

“Nothing,” Barry confirms, and he sounds upset, like they really did try their best and come back empty-handed. “The forest was so thick with fog; we kept getting turned around. Maybe Fogbound Lake is just a myth?”

“I hoped it wasn’t,” Absol says, and he sighs. “Oh well. Not all leads pan out, I suppose.”

They make it to the foot of the cliff, and Lup hops down the final few steps to take the lead. “Maybe one of your next ones will be lucky.” She stops in the middle of the crossroads, and turns to face Absol. “Now. Down there,” she points behind her, “is the beach, pretty cool if you want to have a beach experience. That way,” to the right, “heads out of town, but I’m guessing you knew that since you came from there. Town is to the left. The hole in the ground with stairs down behind me and to the left, that’s Spinda’s Café. It’s a good spot to chill.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s open most of the time,” Barry says, as the three of them head into town, “but it might just close really late. Whenever I want to stop by, it’s always been open.”

“Hmm,” Absol says, “is it run by just one Pokémon?”

“I think three,” Lup says, entering town proper.

For the rest of the day, they show Absol around and introduce him to the other members of the guild, who are all glad to have the extra help. He listens, and asks question, and Lup finds that she doesn’t hate him like she was expecting to, which is a surprise. A welcome one, though. By the time they’re back at the guild and ready to sleep, Lup’s tired but happy.

“And this is your bed,” Lup says, pointing to it with her snout. “Sorry everything is messy and cramped. We didn’t know we’d be roommates until this morning, and our room isn’t the largest to begin with.”

Absol walks over to his nest, and curls up in it. “No, don’t worry!” he says. “This is great. For the past few months I’ve just been sleeping wherever I can, so having one spot to sleep for a while will be great.”

“Oh, right,” Lup says, as she sits in her own nest, “you’re from Treeshroud Forest, right?”

He nods, looking down at his paws. “Ever since its time gear was stolen, I’ve been looking into them. I haven’t settled down anywhere, I’ve just been constantly on the move. I can’t say that I’ll be the best roommate, but…” he takes a deep breath. “I’m Kravitz,” he says, “charmed.”

“Kravitz,” Lup says, “good to meet you! Again. We have been together all day.”

“I had a nice time,” Kravitz says. He rests his head on his paws. “Tomorrow…would you mind if I adventure with the two of you?”

Barry looks to Lup, and she flicks an ear to tell him to go ahead. “We’d love to have you,” he says, “hopefully, we can find the time gears and reverse what happened to your home.”

“Yes,” he agrees, “that criminal who’s been stealing them…I plan to bring them to justice.” He yawns, stretching. “Well, I’m going to go to bed. Goodnight, you two.”

“Goodnight,” Barry says, Lup echoing him. Lup turns to look at Barry, in the nest beside her. With their new sleeping arrangements, their nests are pushed much closer together, so much so that they’re touching.

Lup rests her snout on the rim of their nests, and Barry watches her with an amused crinkle to his eye. “What?” she asks.

“Nothing, nothing,” he says, “I’m just…happy. That you’re here with me.”

“Mmm, me too,” she says, and she reaches forward to bump her nose against his skull. “Night, Barry.”

“Goodnight, Lup,” he says, and she’s smiling as she falls asleep.

She’s woken up the next morning by the soft tap of claws against ground, and when she groans and lifts her head, she sees Kravitz, half-out of his nest, and standing very, very still.

“Kravitz?” she mutters, and he lowers his head.

“Sorry,” he says, “I didn’t mean to wake you, I just wanted to watch the sunrise.”

“Oh,” Lup says, and she shakes herself awake, hopping out of her nest. “S’fine, then. Me and Barry watch it, too.”

She paws at Barry until he’s awake, and clambers up to her usual spot on the windowsill, nudging the window open. She makes sure to stick to one side to give Kravitz some room, except he’s tall enough that he can rest his chin on the windowsill and watch that way. Barry floats between them.

“You also like the sunrise?” Lup guesses.

“I do,” Kravitz says. “I won’t always be able to see it. I like to watch it when I can.” He tilts his head, so his horn is pointing away from both Lup and Barry. “Is there any reason you like it?”

“It’s beautiful,” Lup says, “I think it’s…when I first learned that someone stole the time gear, and that time stopped there, the fact that those Pokémon in that area would never see sunrise again really got to me. It made me realize that this thief had to be stopped, and even more, I wanted to be the one to do it.”

“We share that,” Kravitz says, offering a smile that Lup’s quick to return. “What about you, Barry?”

“I don’t have the same connection to the sunrise as Lup,” Barry says, “but I do really love spending this time together, and I agree with her about finding and catching the thief. We’re a team, so when Lup’s out there chasing down criminals…well, I’ll be there to help her. Even if it’s dangerous.”

Lup grins, her ears pricked happy, and leans into Barry. They don’t talk, after that. She and Barry don’t need to, and Kravitz seems perfectly content to just watch the sunrise with them. She’s in a good mood, when morning meeting is called, and she claims the first empty spot she can see, making sure to leave a space for Kravitz, so he doesn’t have to feel weird or anything.

Davenport leaves his room with a grave look on his face and oh, wow, funny how fast Lup’s good mood can disappear. She looks around, and everyone looks worried, except Lucretia, who looks resigned.

“The time gear at Fogbound Lake was stolen,” Davenport starts.

“What?” Magnus yells, “it’s been like, two days, how was it already stolen?”

“Nobody talked about it,” Julia says, “all of us were in town or out on missions, how did the thief find it?”

“I believe and trust all of you,” Davenport says, “but the fact of the matter is that somehow, the thief found Fogbound Lake, and defeated Uxie. Uxie blames us, and I can’t fault him for that. None of us look good, in this situation.”

“Excuse me,” Kravitz says, “I thought you found nothing at Fogbound Lake? There was a time gear there?”

“There was,” Davenport confirms, “but Uxie asked that our guild not talk about it, in case the thief found out. Usually Uxie erases the memory of Pokémon who find Fogbound Lake.”

“Oh,” Kravitz says. “So…how did the thief find Fogbound Lake?”

“We don’t know,” Davenport says. “But we do know what Pokémon the thief is, based on Uxie’s descriptions. The thief is a rare variant of a Vulpix, an ice-type found on the Blizzard Islands.”

A Vulpix? Lup looks down at her own paws, then back at Barry. He looks worried, and she scoots a bit closer to him. It isn’t her. It literally can’t be her. She was with Barry, and then with him and Kravitz, and then asleep. She’s nowhere close to being an ice-type. She knows this.

But a Vulpix.

“We have a picture here,” Lucretia says, spreading out a piece of parchment that had been wrapped in her tail. “The officer of the region, Magnezone, is spreading this information about Vulpix all over the continent. The guild has been tasked to lead this investigation, and bring Vulpix to justice.”

Lup joins the guild in crowding around the poster, and she stares down at the picture. They’re a Vulpix, for sure, though where her fur is reddish-brown, their fur is white, and they have blue eyes while she has gray. They’re longhaired where she’s shorthaired.

Not her. But close enough to her, and when she thinks back to that vision she had at Waterfall Cave, of a Pokémon jumping in…it was this Vulpix.

“Absol,” Davenport says, and Kravitz startles, looking up. “I know this is only your second day here, but it’s imperative we start searching as soon as possible. You know several locations that might be hiding time gears?”

“Yes,” Kravitz says, and he moves to the front of the room, turning to face the crowd. “I have four possible locations. Eastern Forest, Crystal Cave, Northern Desert, and Giant Volcano. I don’t know how you found Fogbound Lake, but if the Pokémon protecting it could erase memories, then I assume the other time gears will have equal protections.”

“Thank you,” Davenport says, and Kravitz bows his head, stepping back into the crowd. “Now. We don’t have much time, as we’re going to operate under the assumption that the thief knows where these time gears are already. There are four locations, four teams. Go ahead and pick a location, and try to find a time gear. If you do, explain to the time gear’s protector what is going on, and stay to help them, though you can send someone back to the guild to let us know what’s going on.”

He unfurls his wings. “I’m going to go back to Fogbound Lake, and explain to Uxie that none of the guild Pokémon were the ones to tell the thief where Fogbound Lake is. Someone will have to stay behind to watch over the guild and share information with the teams, I’m sorry. Good luck, everyone. Let’s put an end to this.”

He nods to all of them, before returning to his room. Lup squints.

“How does he even leave the guild?” she asks, “he’s too big to get up the ladder.”

“Oh, he has a back room that opens up into the outdoors,” Barry explains, “at least, that’s what Magnus told me, and it makes enough sense that I just decided to believe him.”

Lup nods. She should be focusing on the time gears.

“mmmMMM JaLa can take Crystal Cave,” Lucretia says, as the guild moves over to the map up on the wall. “I think one of us should stay behind, since our team is the largest.”

“I’ll do it,” Merle says, “you always complain I’m too slow, anyways.”

“True,” Julia says, her tail flicking with amusement. “What about the other places?”

Assigning places goes pretty quick, especially with the pressure of time. Lup and Barry end up with Northern Desert, and Kravitz confirms that yes, he will be joining them. They spend a little while preparing, mostly by gathering a few canteens of water and some Oran Berries, before heading off for the desert.

“Why Northern Desert?” Lup asks, after they’ve been walking for a little while and still have quite a-ways to go before they hit sand. Kravitz is leading the way, as he knows the area the best, even if his best is just that he found information possibly linking the location to a time gear, and nothing really about the landscape itself.

“It’s shrouded in mystery,” Kravitz says, “and because it’s a desert, it’s gone mostly unexplored, and when I was exploring those old ruins—the same that um, Lucretia’s team explored? I found carvings that showed three time gears, and one seemed to be in a wide open area, and depicted what I think was sand.”

“Wait,” Barry says, “Lucretia said that those ruins were collapsed, and they only found information about Fogbound Lake. How did you find anything on other time gears?”

“I went before them,” Kravitz says, “we didn’t explore them at the same time. They were already collapsed when I went, maybe her team just didn’t find as much?”

“No,” Lup says, shaking her head, “Lucretia said it was like, on purpose; they thought it was the thief. You think…maybe between you going and her team going, the thief, Vulpix, came?”

“In that case, we really should hurry,” Kravitz says.

They make it to the Northern Desert by midday, and with the sun hot on their backs, they enter. Lup finds out pretty quick that she hates deserts and everything they stand for. There’s a constant sandstorm, kicking up dust and grit into her eyes, and it’s only that she’s fire-type that she doesn’t faint from the heat. Kravitz looks miserable, under his thick coat of fur, and even Barry doesn’t look like he’s enjoying himself.

But they push on, because they have to. Lup snorts. That criminal Vulpix was born of ice, and had a thick coat of fur. At least she knows they’ll be miserable, and hopefully, she and Barry and Kravitz can find and protect the time gear first. That way, Vulpix can suffer through the desert and not even get a time gear out of it.

Stupid Vulpix for being a Vulpix. Lup can’t wait to burn their dumb face.

“I think I see something,” Kravitz says, squinting against the storm, “just up here, like…”

They emerge into…not a clearing, the entire desert is empty and open, but something about this area is different. Lup narrows her eyes. She can barely see anything though all the dust, but…

She digs her claws into the sand underneath. Something…

“There’s quicksand!” Lup yells, and it’s like she’s almost grasped something, a memory, but it slips out of her paws before she can figure anything else out.

“Quicksand?” Barry asks, and Lup wants to leap ahead, throwing caution to the wind, but she doesn’t, because she's smarter than jumping into what might be quicksand. Instead, she tests the sand under her as she creeps forwards, making sure it's solid, not shifting. 

And then she finds it. Giant puddles of swirling quicksand, a few pawlengths in front of them. 

“You were right,” Kravitz says, and he looks at her, a confused look in his eyes. “Have you been here before? How did you know there’d be quicksand?”

“Lucky guess?” Lup lies. It’s more than that, but she doesn’t want to tell Kravitz. She wants to tell Barry, next time they get a moment alone.

“Well, we can’t pass it,” Barry says, “at least, not all of us, and I don’t know that me exploring a desert alone in a place neither of you can get to me if I need help is the smartest idea.”

“But if there’s a time gear past here…” Kravitz starts. Lup cuts him off with a snarl.

“I’m not sacrificing Barry,” she says. “We can find another way through.”

She says that, even though looking out, there’s really nothing here but quicksand and more desert. There isn’t any way to get past, either, unless Barry goes over the quicksand…it’s all bordered by tall, rocky cliffs that would take forever to climb, and they don’t have forever!

But the way she’s feeling…it’s that same vague sense of pride she remembers from Fogbound Lake, that same thought that _you know this place,_ and if Fogbound Lake had a time gear…does Northern Desert have one, too? Or is it all just a coincidence?

“Maybe we should go back,” Barry says, “and come back with someone who could fly over, like Davenport.”

“Do we have time to do that?” Kravitz asks. “What if Vulpix already knows about this place?”

“We don’t know for sure that there’s a time gear here,” Barry says, but the edges of his cape are fluttering, and Lup, absently, brushes herself against him, which seems to calm him down, some. “It might just be a dead end.”

Lup doesn’t believe that. There has to be something here, something they haven’t yet noticed, because why else would she have the creeping sensation that she knows this place?

Think, think…what did she first know about this place? That there was quicksand. Is the quicksand somehow connected?

She takes a few steps closer, peering at the whirlpool of sand before her. They can’t go forwards…or can they?

“Lup.” Barry’s worried voice breaks her out of her thoughts. “You’re getting really close to the quicksand, be careful.”

“I know,” Lup says, but she returns to his side. “I think we have to jump into the quicksand.”

“What?” Barry says, eye wide, and Lup can’t help but grin at that.

“That would be jumping to our deaths,” Kravitz says, even more horrified than Barry. “Look, maybe Barry’s right, maybe this is just a dead end. We shouldn’t…take such a stupid risk!”

“I know it sounds crazy,” Lup says, talking more to Barry than Kravitz. “But…” she lowers her voice, hopes that Kravitz can’t hear her. “You know how I felt at Fogbound Lake? Like I’d been there before? I’m feeling that here, and maybe it has something to do with the time gear. Fogbound Lake was in a weird place, why wouldn’t this time gear also be somewhere weird?”

“Lup…” Barry says, “are you sure? You really believe this is what we have to do?”

“Yes,” she says, “I swear.”

“Okay,” Barry says. “I trust you, Lup. Back at Waterfall Cave…this is similar. On three?”

“On three,” she agrees, and she bumps her nose to his skull. “One second.” She turns to Kravitz, who’s pacing and muttering to himself, and she snorts laughter. She does sound a little crazy, doesn’t she? Especially to someone who’s only known her for a day and a half. “Kravitz,” she says.

“Jumping into quicksand!” he says as he looks at her, but he must notice the amusement on her face, because he falls quiet.

“You don’t have to do this with us,” she says, “I don’t expect you to.”

“What—Barry? You’re going along with this?” Kravitz’s fur is puffed up, his eyes wide. He shakes his head, his horn cutting through the sandstorm and the tuft of fur atop his head falling over his eyes. “You could die! You could both die! And you’re just, what, okay with that?”

“I trust Lup,” Barry says, “I told you this morning, if she’s out hunting the thief, I’ll be right there with her.” He looks down at her, and his eye crinkles in a smile, and Lup wants to hold that image in her brain forever. This is important. This memory, that she’s making right in this moment.

“I can’t just…” Kravitz says, and Lup goes up to him. She’s too short to do much, but she places a paw on his, and he stops.

“It’s okay,” she says, “you can wait here, and see what happens. If we survive and find something under the quicksand, and we will, you can quote me on that, we’ll call up for you. If you want to join us then, you can. If not, you can go back to the guild. No sweat.”

“Yeah,” he says, “yeah, I’ll do that.” He takes a breath, and sits down. “Sorry, it’s just…”

“Hey, I get it,” Lup says, trotting back over to Barry, “you don’t know me well enough to do something dangerous. Now, Barry?”

He nods. “One, two, three!”

And Lup jumps into the quicksand, and lets it pull her down under. Everything is dark, and she can’t breathe, and then she’s landing with a thud on hard ground. She blinks, looking around. Barry’s on the ground next to her, and she noses him to make sure he’s okay. He grumbles, and floats off the ground.

“I’m fine,” he tells her, and he looks around. “A cave?”

That’s what it looks like, to Lup. There’s sand falling in small waterfalls from above, making piles on the ground, and they’re bordered on all sides by rocks, with one tunnel leading deeper in. “I’m pretty sure we found something.”

“Something,” Barry says, amused, and she grins up at him.

“Kravitz!” she calls, not sure if her voice can be heard through the sand but trying anyways. “We didn’t die! Come join us!”

Kravitz joins them a second later, landing hard on his side and wincing. “Ow,” he mutters as he stands to his paws, shaking out his long fur. What looks like an entire cloud of sand comes out of him, and Lup snorts. She’s doing do much better than he is. Short fur is truly the winner, here.

“So, back to the time gear search?” Lup asks, bounding over to the tunnel. “I’m thinking we’ve got a pretty good chance at finding one, now.”

“Yes,” Kravitz agrees, joining her and Barry at the mouth of the tunnel. “I don’t think Vulpix’s first instinct would’ve been to jump into quicksand.”

“Yeah, if someone’s stealing the time gears, they’d have to be smarter,” Lup says, starting down the tunnel.

The three of them travel down the winding tunnel together, to the soft pitter-patter of sand falling from above. It’s cooler down here, and from the way Kravitz doesn’t seem to be walking as carefully as he was before, she can assume the sand is no longer hot enough to burn his paws.

The path is mostly all the same, but eventually, they come across a fork, with one tunnel veering off to the left while the other continues the direction they’ve been heading.

“I can take the left path,” Kravitz offers, “I’m used to exploring alone.”

“You sure?” Lup asks. “We can always stick together and just double back around if the first one is a dead end.”

Leaving Barry isn’t an option she’s willing to entertain.

“We don’t have time for that,” Kravitz says. “We need to find the time gear as fast as we can.”

“Then you stay safe,” Barry says, and Kravitz bids them goodbye as he splits off on his own, leaving Barry and Lup to continue down the path they were already taking.

She’s worried, about Kravitz. They don’t know what to expect. At Fogbound Lake, they fought Groudon! And sure, it was an illusion, but who knows what—

And shit! They never told Kravitz about Groudon, did they? No wonder he was so willing to go alone! All he knows is that Uxie could erase memories, but not that he could create illusions or they had to fight!

Lup snarls.

“You good?” Barry asks, and she shakes her head.

“We never told Kravitz that we had to fight Groudon,” she says, scuffing at the sand with a paw. “I hope he’s okay.”

Barry’s eye narrows. “Fuck, we didn’t. He doesn’t know what to expect…should we go back and tell him?”

“I don’t think we can,” Lup says, “he was right, we don’t have all the time in the world. I know he was on his own, I’m just. I don’t think this is something you _can_ do on your own, you know? I couldn’t’ve beaten Groudon if you weren’t there.”

“Yeah,” Barry says, “we just have to hope he’s okay. We don’t know that we’ll have to fight another illusion, or even if the time gear is really here! It’s very likely, yes, but maybe his path isn’t the one with the time gear.”

Lup closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and they press on.

She’s worried, still, and time passes quickly in that state, until Barry’s grabbed her tight around the middle and she’s squirming in his arms. He’s talking? Fuck, she must’ve zoned out. She shakes and tilts her head to scratch at her ears with a back paw, and when Barry floats back and places her down, she turns to him.

“Lup, you almost ran into that lake!” he says, and she squints, because what? Lake? They’re underground, how could…

“I was zoned out, I guess,” she says, and she turns around to see whatever the fuck Barry means by lake, and she sees, well, a lake.

Sprawling underground, it’s a gentle flow of water, and just in front of her is the edge of the sand they’re walking on. Barry must’ve grabbed her so she didn’t fall in. In the center of the lake, she sees a soft glow, blue-green, and recognizes it from Fogbound Lake.

“Is that—” Lup starts, but she’s cut off by a bright light in front of her, and both her and Barry are thrown backwards.

“You’ve come for my time gear next, have you?” says a voice, and when Lup’s rubbed the bright out of her eyes, she’s staring at a little blue Pokémon with two tails, a lot like Uxie, except this one has a pink head, and four long…ears? Lup’s not sure what they are. “Uxie told me it was a Vulpix who stole his. Think you can steal from my brother and get away from it?!”

“No, we’re not here to—” Lup tries, but the Pokémon hits her with…something, some sort of psychic attack, and she stumbles backwards, her vision swimming. She can’t see right—there’s three Barrys and the Pokémon that attacked her is an out-of-focus haze.

“I won’t let you steal the time gear!” the Pokémon yells, and that Lup can hear. She can’t fight back, though, everything is blurry and hazy and it’s taking all her concentration to not fall over or stumble into the water. She can hear sounds of battle, though—Barry’s ghostly attacks sound something like hissing, a sort of creepy background noise, and from the yelps of the unfamiliar Pokémon, Barry must be doing a good job.

But he’s getting hit, too. She can hear his grunts of pain, and she isn’t there to help him! She has to…she has to help him! She tries to stumble his way, following the sounds of battle, but she hears a screech and she’s being shoved backwards.

“Stay away!” the stranger says, but being shoved was enough to knock Lup out of her confusion. She stands, and looks around for Barry, finding him in the middle of the room with his cape in tatters. She moves over to him, breathing heavy.

“Please,” Lup says, “I swear, I’m not stealing the time gears, we don’t want to hurt you—”

The Pokémon scoffs. “Oh, like your friend’s been doing? Hitting me with shadows? Not the kind of thing someone would be doing if their intentions coming here were good!”

“You attacked us first!” Lup snarls. “Barry was just acting in self-defense!”

“Likely,” scoffs the Pokémon, “he was distracting me while you went for the time gear!”

“She was confused,” Barry says. His eye is narrowed, casting a red glow over the edges of his eye sockets. “Lup would’ve drowned if she fell in there.”

“Didn’t Uxie describe the Vulpix that stole from him?” Lup tries, but she’s leaning so heavily against Barry that she’s pretty sure it’s impossible for her to look scary. Barry will have to do it for both of them. “It wasn’t a typical Vulpix! It was an ice-type one!”

“Maybe he did say that!” the Pokémon yells, floating back so it hovers over the water. “But that doesn’t mean you aren’t working with that Vulpix! How do I know you’re who you say you are?”

“We’re from the guild,” Lup says, “the one Lugia runs. Please, we swear. We don’t want to take the time gear.”

The Pokémon stares at the two of them, beat up and bruised. They aren’t much better off themselves. “Fine,” the Pokémon says. “I’m Mesprit. Uxie told me about the guild coming to Fogbound Lake.”

“What is this place?” Barry asks.

“Underground Lake,” Mesprit says. “I protect the time gear. I want you two to leave, right now.” Lup goes to protest, but Mesprit shakes her head. “I don’t care if you aren’t here to steal the time gear. You led Vulpix to Fogbound Lake. I can’t have you doing the same here.”

“I think it might be a liiitle too late for that,” says a voice from behind them, and Lup turns around just in time to see a Vulpix enter the room. They’ve got a dusky white pelt, a curly poof for a tail, and an easy grin on their jaws.

“You!” Lup snarls, brandishing her tail behind her, and the Vulpix just laughs.

“Me indeed,” they say. “I’ll be grabbing that time gear, now, thank you very much…”

“No!” Lup says, and she jumps to tackle Vulpix, but they just snort and easily duck out of the way, causing Lup to land onto the ground. Lup struggles back to her paws, but before she can try again, Vulpix launches a beam of ice at Barry, that hits him square in the eye, and he’s thrown backwards, landing just at the edge of the sand, too close to the water.

Lup bites back a growl and runs to him, breathing out fire in some desperate attempt to cool him off. He’s frozen, and she huddles next to him to share warmth and turns back to Vulpix, eyes narrowed. They don’t even meet her gaze, as Vulpix strolls up to Mesprit, who’s trembling but standing strong.

“Time gear, please,” Vulpix says.

“Never,” Mesprit spits, and the Vulpix flicks their ears back before they launch shards of ice at her, which is enough to knock her aside. Shit, shit, if only she’d listened, if only Barry hadn’t fought, if only, if only…wait.

They have another teammate, here. Kravitz.

“Vulpix!” Lup yells, and the Vulpix turns to look at her, tilting its head.

“Hmm?” they say. “Gonna ask me to stop, again? It’s not going to work!” They say all of this with a trilling sing-song, like the fact that they’re stopping time is nothing bigger than taking the last cookie from a plate.

“We have another teammate here,” Lup snarls. “Even if you get that time gear,” she pauses, for a split second—Kravitz has only told them his name, it wouldn’t be fair to him if they gave it to this criminal, “Absol will stop you before you can leave the cave!”

The Vulpix snorts. “Krav can fuckin’ try,” they say, and they dive into the water.

“No!” Lup yells, but she can’t do anything—Barry’s still frozen beside her, Mesprit is half-dead on the sandy floor, and she’s made of fire. Diving into a lake, especially in the state she’s in…

“Thanks for the help!” Vulpix yells, and the glow from the time gear in the lake disappears. Lup can’t see, much, but she thinks there’s land on the other side, which is where Vulpix is.

The cave rumbles, and Lup, in her panic because Barry’s still frozen, throws an ember at him. He unfreezes with a start, but there’s no time to explain—he probably heard everything, even if he couldn’t move. She runs to Mesprit, and the little Pokémon wakes up, obviously weak.

“What’s happening?” Lup demands, and Mesprit looks up before her eyes widen in fear.

“The time gear is gone, time’s stopping, we have to get out of here,” she says, “here, grab on and I’ll teleport—”

“Kravitz is still in here!” Lup says, her tails lashing. “We have to save him; we can’t leave him to die!”

“Why did you have to lead the thief here,” Mesprit mutters, but she rushes out of the rumbling cave, Lup and Barry on her heels. Lup chances a glance behind her, and sees that the lake cavern they were just in has gone almost completely gray, and it’s catching up to them, quick.

They crash into Kravitz once they’re back where they first split up, and Mesprit grabs onto his horn. He yelps, confused, but Barry and Lup grab a tail, and she teleports the four of them out.

They’re in the desert, now, on sand, and Mesprit shakes the three of them off. She’s woozy, Lup can tell, her motions slow and shaking.

“What was that?” Kravitz demands. “The tunnels started shaking, and—who is this? What’s going on?”

“The time gear was stolen,” Lup mutters, and that makes Kravitz go instantly still. “We have to get back to the guild.”

“Mesprit, could you teleport us there?” Barry asks, and she shakes her head.

“I’m on death’s door, of course I can’t! I almost killed myself getting us all out of there!” Her tails lash, and she leans against Kravitz, probably because he’s the largest of them all.

“We have Oran Berries,” Lup says, and she pulls one out of the bag, offering it to Mesprit. She takes it, and eats it with a long sigh.

“Okay,” she says, “grab on. You’re all from the guild Lugia runs?” They nod. “I know where that is, then. How many time gears does the thief already have? Mine, Uxie’s, and the one from Treeshroud Forest?”

“Yes,” Kravitz says, “the thief got the time gear? Vulpix?”

“What the hell do you think?” Mesprit says. “This is why I live underground in a cave. I hate dealing with stuff like this.” She grabs the three of them, and Lup braces herself for another teleport. “I know where the thief will strike next. Once we get to your guild, we’re making a plan, and I am not letting another time gear go missing.”

“I’m all with you,” Lup promises, before they’re wrapped in a bright light, and teleported away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im back from vacation and putting this bad boy up kinda late because im writing another novel so. finding time to edit when you're also writing until past 6 most days is. hard. but im taking a break today bc i fucking need one u know? anyways. pokemon time.
> 
> i had already introduced kravitz in this story before the first pokemon from sword and shield were revealed, because otherwise krav would've for sure been a corviknight. how would a seven foot tall raven fit into the guild and interact with lup and barry who are both like two feet tall? dunno. but it woulda been...really fun. but i wasn't about to rewrite 30k words of content to make that happen, and i like absol, anyways. so absol krav will stay.
> 
> alright. next chapter in roughly a week. seeya then!


	5. Absol's Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lup finds out some things about her new friend, Kravitz, and decides to maybe share some secrets of her own in return.

The guild regroups, and shares what they found. It’s nothing good—no time gear, no time gear, the one Lup, Barry, and Kravitz found, but was stolen. Davenport has good news in that Uxie doesn’t blame them for talking about Fogbound Lake, though he does still blame them for the time gear being found—says Vulpix followed them. So, medium news.

But there’s no news from Team mmmMMM JaLa. Mesprit, however, claims this is good. Along with her and Uxie, there is another Pokémon, Azelf, who guards a time gear, and his lake is found at Crystal Cave, where Team mmmMMM JaLa was sent to investigate. Once they’re back, the guild can come up with a plan.

There isn’t anything they can do but wait, and Lup hates it with every fiber of her being. On the one hand, she gets it, because if the entire guild heads to Crystal Cave, well, then Vulpix will know for sure there’s a time gear there, and they can’t lead Vulpix to their fourth time gear. But still. Doing nothing doesn’t sit right with her.

She can’t focus on exploration work, like doing jobs, and it’s hard to force herself out of her bed when she knows everything is out of her hands. She mostly follows Barry around, letting him decide what to do and going along with it. He feels the same as her, useless, but he combats that by going out on jobs, and that’s better than moping, Lup knows.

Kravitz also joins them, and Lup doesn’t mind his company. She likes it, actually. Having another Pokémon around with a similar desire to capture Vulpix…it’s good. She’s thankful for Barry, of course, and he wants to catch the thief too, but there’s something different. Lup’s not sure why, but she feels like catching Vulpix is her goal, why she woke up on that beach all that time ago, and Kravitz seems to think the same.

Catching Vulpix feels like her purpose, while Barry is just doing it because it’s the right thing to do. Or something like that. Lup’s not too sure herself.

But finally, after a week of nothing, Team mmmMMM JaLa—at least, the three members that went to Crystal Cave—return, and with them, a cyan-headed, pale blue Pokémon that looks a lot like Mesprit and Uxie.

The entire guild gathers downstairs, Lucretia, Magnus, Julia, and the new Pokémon in the center, and the four begin to explain.

“My time gear is safe,” the new Pokémon starts, “and also, hi, I’m Azelf, protector of the time gear at Crystal Lake. These three found me, and explained about the thief, and I set off the protections—Crystal Lake is entirely covered by, well, crystal. Vulpix won’t be getting the time gear any time soon.”

“I’m glad,” Mesprit says, and Azelf nods. “Do we have a plan?”

“We’re getting to that,” Magnus says. “We’ve been told about how another time gear, the one at Underground Lake, was stolen. Somehow, Vulpix found their way there. But! To capture Vulpix, we already have the perfect bait, and that’s Azelf and his time gear. Maybe Vulpix knows about Crystal Cave, maybe not, but there’s currently no way to get to that time gear.”

“So, our plan is to start a rumor that Crystal Lake’s time gear will be sealed away forever—not just temporarily, like it is now,” Julia says, “and when Vulpix goes to steal it, there will be a small team of Pokémon there, ready to ambush and capture Vulpix.”

“This ambush team will consist of Azelf, Uxie, Mesprit, and one other Pokémon,” Lucretia says, “too many, and there’s a chance Vulpix will figure out what we’re doing, and not go for that time gear.”

“Could I volunteer?” Kravitz asks, standing up from where he was sitting beside Barry. “I failed to protect the time gear at Underground Lake, and I want to redeem myself.”

“I believe that would work,” Lucretia says, “you four can head off tomorrow, and we’ll also start spreading the rumor then.”

“Hey, wait,” Lup says, “you talking about Underground Lake reminded me…” How to word it…Kravitz still hasn’t shared his name with the rest of the guild. “Absol, when we were facing Vulpix, I mentioned that we had another teammate, you, who would be coming, and Vulpix knew your name. Do you….do you know each other?”

“I remember that!” Barry says, “it was right after Vulpix froze me.” He turns to look at Kravitz. Actually, the entire guild turns to look at Kravitz, mostly confused.

“I,” Kravitz starts, and he sighs. “We do know each other.”

“How?” Magnus asks, his tail stiffening in disbelief.

“It’s…going to be hard to believe,” Kravitz starts, and he makes his way to the middle, everyone staring at him. “But I’m not lying, or making this up. I swear this is the truth.”

The guild falls silent, and Kravitz takes a deep breath. “Vulpix is a Pokémon from the future,” he starts. “There, he is a notorious outlaw, with a huge bounty on his head. To escape capture, he fled into the past, where he plotted out his worst scheme of all. To cause the planet’s paralysis.

“When a time gear is stolen, time stops in just that area, but as more are stolen, the area time stops in grows, and grows, until eventually, the entire planet is paralyzed. Time is frozen across the entire world: the seasons never change, the sun never rises, the wind never blows, and for those Pokémon left alive, it is a miserable life to live. It is, to put it simply, the complete ruin of the world.”

“How do you know this?” Julia asks, her tail flicking. “It all sounds so…outlandish. It makes sense why you want to stop Vulpix so bad, but how would you know he’s from the future?”

“That’s because I am also from the future,” Kravitz says.

The guild falls into chaos. Lup looks at Barry. From…the future? She glances back to Kravitz, and his fur is bristling. He’s scared, Lup realizes. That nobody will believe him.

But Lup is a human turned Pokémon. And she hasn’t told anybody for very similar reasons.

“I believe him,” Lup says, and that startles everyone back into silence. “What would Absol gain from lying about this?”

“Me too,” Barry agrees. “You’ve helped us a lot, Absol. If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t even know about the location of two time gears, much less be in a position to protect one and finally capture Vulpix.”

“Thank you, Lup, Barry,” Kravitz says, and he offers them a small smile. “I was sent back in time to find and capture Vulpix, and bring him back into the future for arrest. That’s how I know about the time gears—I studied their locations in the future. Much is still unknown about them, but there are several books on them and their possible locations. I assume that’s also how Vulpix knows where they are.

“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want Vulpix to know I was here,” Kravitz says, “though, I guess that doesn’t matter now. And also…I was scared. I heard that your guild was looking into the time gears disappearing, and I knew that I needed your help, but if I came up to you talking about being from the future…would anyone have believed me?”

“Maybe not,” Magnus mutters.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier,” Kravitz says, “it might’ve helped to prevent Underground Lake’s time gear from being taken. But that’s why I want to join this ambush. I’ve faced Vulpix before, in the future, and I know his tricks. With Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf, I’m confident that we should be able to capture him.”

He bows his head, and steps back into the crowd.

“Thank you, Absol,” Davenport says.

“It’s, um, Kravitz, actually,” Kravitz says, and Lup grins at him even though his back is to her. He returns to his seat, beside Barry, and Lup ducks under Barry to raise up a paw for a high-five.

“Good job,” she says, “I know it must’ve been hard.”

Kravitz laughs, a little, and bumps his paw to hers. “I feel bad I didn’t tell at least you two,” he says. “You’ve been very nice to me, this entire time.”

“Yeah,” Lup says, soft. “After this, can I talk to you? Well, Barry can come too, but just the three of us? Alone?”

“Lup,” Barry says, “are you telling him about…?”

“Yeah,” she says.

“Of course,” Kravitz says, and Lup nods. Good. Maybe…maybe, being from the future, he’ll know a bit more about her weird ability, or her being a human.

The meeting ends a few minutes later, though Lup isn’t able to get Kravitz alone, because everyone is crowding him and asking him about the future. She’s curious, and has nothing better to do, so she sits back and listens.

“What’s it like in the future?” Magnus asks. “Cooler? Worse?”

“The same, mostly,” Kravitz says, “this guild is still around, but I don’t think Davenport is running it, because I’d never heard of Lugia running a guild until I came back here. There are more towns, and a few cities. I know there’s a city in the mountains, and you can see out across the entire continent on clear days.”

“Where are you from?” Carey asks. “Because I think someone said Treeshroud Forest, but if you aren’t from now, was that a lie?”

“That was a lie,” Kravitz says, “I thought it made my actions to find the time gears seem believable, if it was because my home was destroyed by Vulpix’s actions. But in the future, I do live in a forest, called Dusk Forest. With my…mothers.”

“Why’d you hesitate on mothers?” Julia asks.

“Well, I grew up with both of them, but in recent years they’re started…fighting. So, they don’t live together anymore. I don’t like thinking about it, because it’s the kind of argument where I had to take a side, so I haven’t seen one of my mothers in a long time.”

_Shit_ , Lup thinks. She’s got no memory of parents and doesn’t really care, but still. Barry winces, at that, and she turns to him.

“You okay?” she asks, soft.

“Ye—yeah,” he says, “I will be. I just…my own mother died when I was younger.”

“Shit, Bear, that sucks,” Lup says, and then freezes, because oh, she didn’t mean to say that. She’s never given Barry a nickname before. It’s not weird, per say, but it’s…new. Thankfully, Barry doesn’t comment, just smiles and bumps his skull against her head.

“Thanks, Lup,” he says. “I’ll be fine, it’s just. Not great to think about.”

She nods, and lays down to wait for the rest of the guild to get bored or run out of questions and wander off to do something else. It takes forever, in which she mostly tunes out what everyone is talking about, instead letting their voices be background as she focuses on and talks to Barry. But eventually, her ears flick, and she realizes she hasn’t heard talking for a while.

She looks down at Barry, asleep against her side, and smiles. She’s so glad to have met him. She noses him awake, and he blinks up at her.

“Lup?” he asks. “Sorry I fell asleep on you…are we going to talk to Kravitz, now?”

“Yeah,” she says, “and it’s fine, don’t even worry about it. We’re friends, you have the right to fall asleep on me whenever you want.” She stands, Barry floating beside her. “Alright, where’s Kravitz?”

She looks around, and notices that the guild is pretty empty, and also, rather dark. “Wait, where’s _everyone_?”

Barry floats over to the window. “I think it’s night,” he says, and Lup bounds over to him, rearing up to rest her paws on the windowsill, and sure enough, the moon and stars are out.

“Did I…also fall asleep?” Lup asks, and Barry shrugs. “I guess…maybe he’s in our room?”

They check their room, but Kravitz isn’t in there, and their beds are all untouched, so…where is he? Outside, maybe? The two of them climb up the ladders and outside, into the night. The large torches alongside the guild’s entrance are lit up, and Lup looks around. Still no Kravitz.

“Oh,” Barry says, and he taps Lup. She turns around, and there, at the cliff behind the guild’s entrance, is Kravitz, staring out over the land. Lup walks up to him, and he turns at her pawsteps.

“Hi, you two,” he says, “did you want something?”

“To talk,” Lup says, “about that thing I mentioned? Uh…you aren’t the only one who’s been holding a secret.”

Kravitz tilts his head. “What…?” he asks.

“I’ll explain,” Lup says. “C’mon, follow me.”

She begins leading the way to the beach, her heart pounding in her chest. It’s stupid, to be nervous. Kravitz is from the future! He knows what it’s like to hide something! But that does nothing to stop her nerves. Still, Lup does her best to push them aside. She’d doing this. Nothing is going to stop her.

“Okay,” she starts, once they’re on the beach, as she heads for the spot Barry first found her at, “the first thing I can remember, is waking up on the beach right here.” She sits down at the spot, and Barry floats over to her side. “With no memories but my name and the fact that I used to be a human.”

“What?” Kravitz says, and his fur fluffs out. He looks at her, squinting. “But…but you’re a Vulpix! You look in every way like a Vulpix!”

“I know,” Lup says, “Barry found me, and that’s when we decided to become an exploration team, after another thing happened, but that’s his to tell. But…I don’t know. You telling us all that you were from the future, I know that took courage, and I wanted to repay the favor. You’re my friend. You deserve to know. And if there’s anything you know…I’d love information.”

“I’ve never heard of anything like that happening,” Kravitz says, and he sits, curling his tail around his paws. “I’m sorry. You just…woke up? Here?”

“Yeah, she was pretty badly hurt, too,” Barry says. “I thought she was dead, when I first saw her.”

“A human…” Kravitz says, and he frowns, barely, his tail twitching. “Do you want to change back? Are you trying to get your memories?”

“Um,” Lup says, and she laughs, awkwardly. “Not really? I’d rather stop Vulpix from stealing the time gears. I don’t know where to start with my memory loss, and I don’t know how to be a human again, and I don’t even remember anything about being one! And I have Barry, here, and I doubt I have anyone looking for me, or I’d’ve heard something by now. I don’t…I’m okay how I am. I just want to know why, I guess. I was thinking it might be connected to the time gears, but who knows.”

“I’ve never seen anything about time gears turning humans into Pokémon,” Kravitz says. “I’m sorry I don’t know more.”

“It’s fine, that one’s just…weird,” Lup says. She shakes herself, her tails thumping against the sand. Barry floats down, closer to her, and she brushes up against him. “I do have something else, though. I have this…ability? I’m not sure how exactly it works, but three times now, I’ve touched an object and then had…a vision, basically, of something that happened in the past or the future.”

“The Dimensional Scream,” Kravitz says, awed, and Lup catches a small, half-grin on his face, but when she blinks it’s gone. Did she imagine it? Maybe her ability is way cooler than she realized. “I’ve heard of that before. It’s incredibly rare, but for those who have it, when touching certain objects, sounds and images can slice across the boundaries of time, and come to the Pokémon as visions.”

“Wow,” Lup says. Okay, yeah, way cooler than she thought. “Dimensional Scream…fitting name. I do hear a scream before seeing any visions. Do you know if there’s a way to trigger it?”

“No, I’m sorry,” Kravitz says. “I’ve only heard of it in legend, but I’ve never met someone with it.”

Lup scuffs her paws in the sand. She’s glad, she told Kravitz, but if even he can’t help… “That’s okay,” she says.

“Well,” Barry says, “if we’re sharing secrets, I might as well ask you something. I’ll be right back, you two wait here.”

Barry heads off to the guild, and Lup watches him go with a pricked ear. She’s not sure what he’s going to do, or get, or ask about. Maybe the Relic Fragment? It would make sense, she thinks. An item they don’t know about, but maybe one Kravitz has seen in the future.

“Kravitz,” Lup asks, “when you capture Vulpix, you said you were bringing him back to the future. Are you going back with him?”

“Yes,” he says, “why do you ask?”

“Just…this might be our last conversation,” she says. “You leave tomorrow. Hopefully you catch Vulpix. Then this is all over.” She sighs, looking down at her paws. “I’m sorry. I’m sure you have friends and family missing you in the future.”

Kravitz sighs. “I know,” he says. “But don’t worry. Everything will work out.”

“Yeah, stopping Vulpix is the most important,” Lup says. She looks up, and sees Barry coming back, and she grins. He’s holding something in his hands…the Relic Fragment! She guessed right!

She hops up, greeting Barry as he floats back down over to them. He places his Relic Fragment in the sand, and gives her a quick hug that Lup melts into. He’s a skull with a cape, how is he so soft?

“Alright,” Barry says, “so, this is my Relic Fragment.” Kravitz looks down at it, studying the intricate pattern. Lup runs a paw over it, to feel the indentions, tracing them with a careful claw. “I don’t really remember where I found it, but I’ve had it for a really long time, and I was wondering if you know anything about it or the pattern?”

“Hmm,” Kravitz says. He lowers his head to sniff at the Relic Fragment, and narrows his eyes as he looks it over. “I’ve never seen this pattern before, I’m sorry.”

“Well, it was worth a shot,” Barry says, shrugging. “Thanks for looking at it.” He picks it up, tucking it into the folds of his cloak. “I guess we should all head back to the guild. It’s really late.”

“Oh, wow, it is,” Lup says, looking up at the moon—it’s already at its peak. “I’m not tired, though.”

“You did both fall asleep in the middle of the guild,” Kravitz says, “that might be why.” The three of them leave the beach, starting up the path to the guild.

“Oh, that’s a little embarrassing,” Lup says, “does explain why it was dark out when I opened my eyes, though. I didn’t know I was that tired.”

“I’m not judging you,” Kravitz says, as they make it to the guild’s entrance. He stops. “Lup, Barry…thanks for sharing this with me. I might not be able to help much, but I’ll do my best.”

“You shared your big secret, it’s only fair,” Lup tells him.

“About that…thanks for saying you believed me,” he says, “it was…really nerve racking, and having your support meant a lot.”

“No problem,” Lup says, and they fall into a comfortable silence as they head back to their room, the three of them curling up in bed.

Lup doesn’t sleep much, that night. She’s not tired, and she’s worried, worried about Kravitz and what might happen to him. She faced Vulpix, and he was smart enough to freeze Barry in just one hit, and in doing that, also prevent her from doing anything to help. Smart enough to let them fight Mesprit, so he didn’t have to. Crafty, is a better word for it. Vulpix is crafty.

She climbs out of bed and hops up onto the windowsill. It’s still dark out, but the moon is setting, and soon, it’ll be sunrise.

She pushes open the window to let in a nighttime breeze, and breathes deeply as she lets the wind ruffle her fur. So much has happened, in such a short time, and soon, that might all come to an end. And then what? Will she and Barry do typical exploration team stuff, like jobs and adventuring for the sake of finding something new? The first job they did, they had to save a kid from dying! All of their adventures were to find the time gears!

Stopping Vulpix feels like her purpose. What is she going to do with herself when that purpose is completed?

Barry joins her, silently, and Lup wordlessly scoots over to give him some room. He settles on the windowsill, and Lup presses close against him. One of his arms rests over her back, and she feels like she’s home.

They don’t need to talk. Lup likes that. To just exist in the same space as someone, and have that be enough.

“Good morning,” Kravitz says, and Lup flicks an ear in greeting, Barry answering with a quiet hello of his own. Kravitz joins them, and the three of them watch the sunrise together, one last time.

All this time later, and it still amazes Lup every morning. To see darkness bleed into gentle light, into pinks and reds and oranges reflected in the clouds as the sun rises to bring day with it.

“Kravitz,” she says, “just…just in case something goes wrong, and you aren’t able to capture Vulpix…what do you know about him? Any weakness? Anything we could use?”

“Vulpix is…smart,” Kravitz says, “that’s how he evaded capture so long. He relies on using others. Lup, when you first fought him, he froze Barry, right?”

“He did,” Barry says, “hit me right in the eye, too.”

“Exactly,” Kravitz says, “as a fire-type, you, Lup, couldn’t be frozen, but Barry could, and you care about Barry, so you stayed back to help him. And by…I’m assuming he followed us, and he waited until you two and Mesprit had fought and weakened each other before heading in. He isn’t the strongest Pokémon. He relies on outsmarting his opponents. That’s why I came alone, to find him. If I had someone working with me, it would be easier for him to try and use that against me.”

He steps back once the sun has mostly risen, and sighs. “But don’t worry,” he says, “I plan to capture him, and he won’t be able to hurt anybody again.”

Kravitz leaves before morning meeting, teleported away by Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf in a flash, and the guild is left to spread rumors to lure Vulpix out, and hope that nothing goes wrong.

The don’t get any news the first day. Lup spends the day doing her best to go about her day as normal, her and Barry heading out to the areas around Fogbound Lake to talk loudly about the time gear being sealed away.

They don’t get any news the second day. Lup wanders around town with Barry, and has a nice conversation with the kid they helped, Angus. He expresses a desire to help with the time gears, and they explain about the plan to him.

They don’t get any news the third day. Lup and Barry head out to the ruins Team mmmMMM JaLa investigated, and Lup looks at the mostly crumbled stone and traces what few carvings are left uncovered. At one point, her head pounds and her vision goes red, and she sees the thief, Vulpix, in the same spot she is, tracing over the carving with an empty look in his eyes too similar to how she’s feeling. When she comes back to herself, she waits outside for Barry, and pretends everything is okay.

The don’t get any news the fourth day. She joins Magnus, Julia, Carey, and Killian at the beach, where they try to build the best sandcastles. Lup uses her flames to give her and Barry’s real glass windows. They don’t win, though: that honor goes to Carey and Killian, who not only build a castle taller than Magnus, but one with a moat. The decision was unanimous.

The fifth day, Julia bursts onto the bottom floor of the guild where everyone is gathered for morning meeting, her mane sparking with electricity, and she says, “They’re back! And they caught Vulpix! Everyone’s gathering in the town square!”

Needless to say, morning meeting ends instantly.

They all gather in town square, where the rest of the Pokémon from the town already are. There’s a…something, at the front of the crowd, with Mesprit floating near it. It’s tall, and it’s black-glowing-blue, and looking at it makes Lup’s head spin.

“What is that?” Magnus asks, going up to it, but Mesprit blocks him.

“A dimensional hole,” she says, “how to get to the future. Don’t get near it.”

“Oh, okay,” Magnus says, and he scoots back into the crowd. A few Pokémon in the front follow his lead, inching backwards away from the hole.

Lup settles down to wait. After a minute, Kravitz walks up, as if he came from the crossroads, Uxie and Azelf behind him and something in between the three of them. It takes Lup a minute before she recognizes the Pokémon to be Vulpix, though he’s tied up. He’s stumbling along, being pushed by Uxie, because his paws are tied together with rope, and he’s also got rope around his mouth, muzzling him. Lup snorts. Serves him right.

Uxie and Azelf shove Vulpix over to Mesprit, and the three stand guard over him, while Kravitz stops just in front of the dimensional hole.

“Everybody,” he starts, “thank you so much for helping to capture Vulpix, and find the time gears…I couldn’t’ve done any of this alone. With Vulpix captured, I’m leaving the time gears with Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf.”

“We’ll be returning them to their rightful place,” Uxie says, and the other two nod. Vulpix narrows his eyes, and Lup wonders if it would interrupt Kravitz’s speech if she just threw some fire at Vulpix. He deserves it, for what he did to Barry.

Kravitz nods. “Now that Vulpix is captured, and once the time gears are restored to their rightful places, it should result in everlasting peace for your world.”

At that, Vulpix, who had been mostly staring down at his paws, jerks up, and starts trying to talk through the muzzle. It comes out as nothing but muffled yowls, and Lup rolls her eyes. Mesprit pinches Vulpix’s ear, and it must be hard, because he snarls but goes quiet, tugging his ear free so it can join the other in drooping.

“I’m very thankful for the guild, and everything you guys did to help and make me feel welcome. Team mmmMMM JaLa, I’m sorry I was so rude the first time we met. I regret not joining when you asked me, too, and that was a mistake on my part. As for everyone else…this is goodbye. I’m glad I got to meet all of you.”

With that, he nods to Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf, and the three of them shove Vulpix over to the dimensional hole, before shoving him in. Kravitz moves over to the portal, waving goodbye as everyone calls out their own farewells.

“Hey, Kravitz,” Lup says, and she goes up to him with Barry as the rest of the crowd disperses, so it’s just the three of them. “It was fun. I was worried about having a roommate at first, but you turned out to be a pretty good one.”

“We’ll both miss you,” Barry adds, “it was nice to have someone else to watch the sunrise with us.”

“And hey!” Lup adds, trying to keep to mood up. “You said the guild is in your future, right? We’ll leave you a message! In the guild’s records! Don’t know what it’ll say, yet, but you can go visit and find it!”

She grins up at him, keeping her ears pricked despite her sadness.

“If I never figure out what my Relic Fragment does, I’ll hide it somewhere and make note of it in that letter,” Barry says, “maybe you can figure it out.”

“Yeah,” Kravitz says, soft. “I guess this is goodbye.”

He takes a step back, closer to the portal, and his horn glows a slight yellow. “Or is it?”

“Wh—” Lup starts, before he unleashes the light on the both of them, and Lup’s muscles seize up and she can no longer move. Paralyzed! She tries to struggle, but there’s no use, and within a second, she’s being grabbed by the scuff as Kravitz lifts her up.

What’s going on? She’s confused, and can’t move, and Barry—he’s on the ground! She can’t even call out for him, but it doesn’t matter, because Kravitz scoops him up, too, by sticking his horn through Barry’s eye sockets and raising up his head.

That’s gotta hurt, what is Kravitz doing, Lup can’t do anything but watch as Kravitz jumps through the portal with the two of them in tow. She’s aware of bright light, and a searing pain, and that’s the last thing she knows before she’s hit with an attack and her vision goes dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a bit of a shorter chapter, this time, but hey! lots of stuff happens. and next chapter....y'all who know the plot of sky know what's coming next. aka: man all these next parts are my fucking favorite! i love sky you guys. that's why i wrote a 55k adventure zone au about it. 
> 
> but also: the true mood of sky is knowing the world is ending, that time gears are being stolen....so you and your partner help rescue caterpie from the beach cave because you aren't allowed to help capture the thief. it always annoyed me when playing, the like, three days of missions before plot happened. which is probably why i really love the back end of the game, obvi the plot is super good, but you're doing things! to save the world! fuck yeah!
> 
> next chapter should be here in roughly a week!


	6. Into the Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lup and Barry are dragged into the future, and forced to work with the enemy if they want to get home.

Lup comes to, and she can’t move. She tries—her paws, her tails, but nothing. She can flick her ears, but everything feels tight, like she’s being squished, and she can hardly even move her head. When she finally manages to look down, she sees thick, black ropes, tying her to…something.

What…the last thing she remembers is Kravitz attacking them, but that doesn’t make any sense! He’s their friend! Why would he…

There’s just enough light for her to see by, and she tries to look around. There isn’t much. She’s in a large, stone room, and she’s trapped. Cool.

“Ugh…” she hears from beside her, and her heart speeds in her chest.

“Barry?” she says, trying to turn her head, “Barry! Are you okay?!”

“Neugh…Lup? Where…what’s going on? Kravitz…attacked us?” She finally manages to turn, and she sees Barry, just as tied up as she is. He’s got scrapes all around his eye sockets, and his eye is squinted. “I can’t…see all too well,” he says, “I think…ow. I think his horn got my eye.”

Lup wants to cry, because Barry’s okay. “Barry,” she says, and she strains to reach him even though she knows it’s pointless. “Barry, Bear, I…”

“Yeah,” he says, and that’s when she notices something she didn’t notice at first, because she was so overjoyed he was alive. His voice is thick with pain. “We’ll…get out of this.”

“That’s the spirit,” says another voice, and Lup snarls. That’s Vulpix! Is this all his fault? “What did you two do? I assumed it would just be me trussed up here.”

“Where are you?” Lup asks in a low growl.

“Other side of your ghostly friend,” Vulpix says. “Just woke up, and shit, someone tried to break my neck, I think. Anyway. I ask again: what are you two in for?”

“What do you mean, ‘in for?’ What’s going to happen to us?” Barry asks.

“Uh, we’re in the stockade,” Vulpix says, and even though Lup can’t see him, she knows he’s rolling his eyes. “We’re here to be disposed of, duh. Killed, thrown out with the trash, all that stuff. Hey, wait a second.” He pauses. “I recognize you! You’re those Pokémon who tried to stop me from getting a time gear! Shit, I thought you were on their side! Now I’m really curious.”

“We haven’t done anything!” Lup says. “If this is the stockade, then yeah, I get why you’re here, you tried to end the world. But us? Kravitz just…randomly attacked us! He was our friend, I don’t…”

“That shithead’s a traitor, no surprises there,” Vulpix says. “Hey. If you two wanna get out of this, listen to me really quick. Krav has a few Sableye underlings, they’re the ones who do the dirty work. They attack with claws, and they’re all kinda dumb, so they tend to just slash until we’re dead. They don’t pay too much attention to where their claws land. And we’re all bound up in rope…”

“You’re saying they might cut the ropes?” Barry asks.

“Hopefully,” Vulpix says. “If that happens, attack, just the first and quickest thing you can do, to force them off of you. I have a plan after that, just trust me.”

“Trust you?” Lup snarls. “You were trying to end the world! Why would we ever trust you?”

“Okay, one, wrong, and two, even if what you say is right, you have, uh, let’s see, no other choice? ‘Cept death, which like. If that’s your thing, I guess die.”

Lup growls, going to snap back a retort, but before she can, the doors open with a loud boom, and six Sableye enter, followed by…

“Kravitz!” Lup yells, relived. This was all just a misunderstanding, he’ll let them free. “Kravitz, it’s me! And Barry! You have us tied up by mistake!”

“Prince Absol,” says one of the Sableye, and Lup hides a snort. Prince? What weird game is Kravitz playing? “The three are secured to the stakes.”

“Good,” Kravitz says, not sparing Lup a glance. “Get rid of them.”

“What?” Lup yells, straining at her bindings. “Kravitz, it’s us, you know us! We had a moment on the beach! We’ve been watching the sunrise together! We’re roommates!”

“Dude, he doesn’t care about you,” Vulpix mutters, quiet enough that Lup has to strain to hear it. “He’s a traitor. He tricks Pokémon. It’s his whole thing. Watch.” He raises his voice. “Hey! Krav! It’s me! The guy you worked with to prevent the planet’s paralysis for a whole year? I know your mom! Are you two even on speaking terms? Shitty kid you are, to betray your own fucking mom. I don’t even have parents and I know that much!”

“Don’t listen to anything they say,” Kravitz says, and Lup watches him. He doesn’t react to anything Vulpix says, and she snorts. Lies, then. Vulpix is trying to trick them. “The three of them will lie and cheat to get out of this.”

The Sableye nod.

“You may begin,” Kravitz says. The Sableye advance, two for each of them, and their eyes glint red.

“Kravitz, if you were ever our friend, give us some sign,” Barry says. He sounds tired, and hurt, and Lup wants to both hug him and be hugged by him. “Or was that all a trick?”

Kravitz doesn’t give Barry a second glance. Barry sighs

“Attack if they cut the ropes?” he hisses, to her and Vulpix.

“Yeah,” Vulpix says. “Then get over to me, and don’t hesitate. We’ll have seconds to pull this off.”

“What if they don’t?” Lup whispers, her ears drooping. “What if they use another attack, or the ropes don’t cut?”

“We’ll be dead and it won’t matter anymore,” Vulpix says. Lup takes a deep breath.

The Sableye approach, and then they’re slashing at the ropes, at Lup, and she bites back a wail of pain. She has to get out of this, she has to endure this and figure out what happened and why Kravitz is acting weird, and also set Vulpix on fire for doing this to her.

And then, a tear in the ropes, and she launches forward with an attack of brute force and little else. It’s enough to send the two Sableye off of her, and she looks to Barry, who’s managed to do the same. She runs to him, and then the room goes bright, and then she’s in darkness.

She hears, though everything is muffled. The confused shouts of the Sableye, and then Kravitz: “Calm down! He didn’t attack, it’s just the light!”

A few seconds pass, enough so that Lup assumes whatever that light was is gone, now, and she hears Kravitz snarl. “They must’ve escaped in the chaos. They can’t be far. Come.”

Another minute, before Lup is back on the ground, coughing.

“You used dig?” Barry asks, and Vulpix nods, shaking dirt out of his already-stained fur.

“The light was another move I can do,” Vulpix says, glancing to Lup. “Are you okay?”

“I have dirt in my mouth,” she mutters, managing to spat the last of it out. “Why’d you do that?”

“Yeah, sorry I saved your life, I should’ve left you to die,” Vulpix snorts, hurrying over to the door. Barry follows him, and Lup follows Barry. “We’ll have to run, but we should be able to get out of the compound.”

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Lup says, stumbling on her paws. She wants to be back in her nest, with Barry, not…wherever she is.

“I’ll explain later,” Vulpix says. “C’mon.”

They run for what feels like forever, and Lup’s chest is aching and her lungs are struggling to pull in air. Everything hurts, and she can’t run forever. She’s already weak from those Sableye. Even Vulpix, despite her hatred of him, seems to be doing poorly. He’s stumbling along, but his eyes are narrowed and his tail is set.

She doesn’t know what to believe. Kravitz…he attacked them. But she trusted him! So…

No. Ignore it. She doesn’t have the time. Nothing but running.

Finally, finally, they make it out of the compound, and emerge into the outside world. It’s nighttime, and the sky must be blotted over with thick clouds, as when Lup looks up, she can see no stars or moon. She stops, leaning against Barry when he floats down to her.

Vulpix’s ears are twitching, even as he slumps over and pants. “We can’t stay here forever,” he says, “we gotta…shit, everything hurts. We have to keep running.”

Lup’s ears flatten when she hears the cackling of the Sableye, and Vulpix’s do the same. He drags himself to his paws. “I would kill for an Oran Berry,” he mutters, as he presses forwards.

Back to running. Lup heaves in a breath, and Barry helps her to her paws. He’s lucky. He doesn’t have to run. Despite that, he still looks tired, and those scratches around his eye sockets…

They’re bone deep, literally. Deep gouges cut into his skull. Lup presses her nose to one, wishing more than anything she could heal him.

“I’m fine, Loopy,” he says, soft, “I promise. They won’t kill me.”

“Loopy,” she snorts, and she feels her throat burn when she laughs. Water would be nice. “Cute.”

They follow Vulpix. It’s hard to force herself to go fast, but once she gets there, it’s easy to keep it. Painful, but as long as she focuses on getting one paw in front of the other, she can do it. She has to do it. She has to figure out what’s going on, and why Kravitz attacked them, and why Vulpix helped them.

Nothing fits. It’s like she has a puzzle, but the pieces are all wrong, and none of them connect. Lup hates how helpless she feels, how useless.

They run into the night. The clouds don’t let up, so Lup can’t tell how close they are to morning. Her world narrows to just running, to staring at her feet and feeling the press of Barry as he floats beside her.

Vulpix stops first, and she, in her daze, stumbles into him. He doesn’t even snap at her, just lets himself go down with her flopped over him.

“I hate this so much,” he mutters, and Lup pushes herself off of him. There’s a little alcove, nearby, that should hide them from any Sableye, and she drags herself into that.

“Can we please just rest until morning?” Lup asks, curled into a tiny ball as she tries to regain her breath. “I don’t think I can run anymore.”

“Morning,” Vulpix scoffs, “that’s funny.” She looks up at him, on the opposite side of their alcove. His ears are set flat, and he’s staring at one of his forepaws, that has a cut in it.

“What do you mean?” Barry asks.

“Planet’s paralyzed, dumbasses,” Vulpix says, shaking his paw and setting it back down. “Morning never comes.”

“But…” Lup frowns. “That can’t be right. Kravitz said you came back to paralyze the planet. That the future was fine!”

“I don’t know how to tell you this any more clearly, but Kravitz is a liar, and a traitor.” Vulpix stands up, peeking out of their alcove.

“And I’m supposed to trust a criminal over my friend?” Lup asks, setting her teeth in a snarl. Vulpix sighs, tail drooping.

“Look, I’m not asking you to trust me. I’m saying: look at what got you here, and you’ll find out that a lot of things don’t add up, huh?” He shakes himself. “I’m going. I recommend you run before the Sableye catch up. If you decide to realize Kravitz is a fucking liar, and you catch up with me, I’ll help you get back to your world. Otherwise…” he hums. “I won’t wait up. I have a world to save.”

He leaves their alcove, and his pawsteps fade away as he runs off.

Lup buries her face in her paws. “Barry, I’m so confused,” she whimpers. “I want to go home; I want everything to make sense!”

“I know, Lup,” he says, and he settles down beside her. He’s not warm, not compared to her, but he’s Barry and that’s warmth in and of itself. She presses up to him, hides her face against his body. His arms wrap around her, and good. Lup wants that. She needs that. Barry, he’s the same and she can trust him. “Everything’s…really shitty. I don’t know what’s going on, but I think we’ve been given some wrong information.”

“I trust Kravitz,” she says. “I told him about me, we adventured together, he’s our friend…” Her chest aches, but if it’s from running or the weight of her confusion Lup doesn’t know. “Vulpix has to be lying,” she says. “The planet can’t be paralyzed! We stopped him, we got back the time gears, Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf were supposed to return them, why is it paralyzed?”

“I can’t answer that,” he says, gently petting her ears. “I don’t know how this happened, but it did, and we have to face that. Someone hasn’t been telling us the truth. Kravitz said the future was good, and this is the opposite of that.”

“But…why would he lie about that?” Lup asks. “He wanted to stop Vulpix, he wanted to prevent the planet’s paralysis! You don’t believe what Vulpix is saying, do you?”

“I don’t know what to believe,” Barry says.

Laughter echoes off the walls, and the both of them jolt, Lup’s ears shooting up and shaking Barry’s hands off her, Barry’s robe poofing with his surprise.

“The Sableye,” Lup hisses. Those, she knows, are the bad guys. They tried to kill her. That one’s easy enough.

“We have to run again,” Barry says, so they disentangle from each other, and continue running.

There’s a hole, in the cliffs they’ve been running on, and they enter. It’s a cave, Lup realizes. A cave of dead ends, and Lup can’t see more than a few inches in front of her. But having fire out for a light would give them away if any Sableye happen to be behind them, so they navigate using the faint glow from Barry’s eye.

“I hate this cave,” Lup says, when they hit the tenth dead end in five minutes. Barry nods, the motion only noticeable because the light of his eye bobs, and they turn around and try another path.

But eventually, they make it out, and Lup’s sides are heaving. It’s still dark, which means it has to be close to morning. The planet…it can’t be paralyzed. Vulpix was lying.

“I think we have to rest, now,” Barry says, floating a little ways ahead of her, and she hurries to catch up. “Huh, there’s a waterfall up here.”

“You sure?” Lup asks. “Because I’m not hearing it.”

“Yeah, I’m sure…” Barry trails off, and she finally catches up to him, staring at the waterfall he found.

It’s water. But it’s frozen. Not like how ice is frozen, but like someone drew a picture of water, and that’s what she’s looking at right now. It should be moving, it just isn’t. Lup touches a paw to the water, and it feels no different from the rock under her feet. Cool and unmoving.

“I guess Vulpix was telling the truth,” Barry says, “the planet really is paralyzed.” He joins her in poking at the water. “This is fascinating, in a horrible way.”

“It can’t be,” Lup says, “because that would mean Kravitz lied about this…but why?” She shakes her head and closes her eyes, pretends like if she can’t see it, it’s not there. “I can’t…”

“He attacked up, Loopy,” Barry says, “I think…I think Vulpix is telling the truth. We should catch up with him, and ask him what’s going on.”

“But he tried to end the world!” Lup says, and she spins around to face Barry, ears flat. “He stole the time gears, and time froze! How can he be anything but an evil Pokémon?”

“Kravitz attacked us, Lup,” Barry says, and he floats towards her, and Lup lets it happen, bumps her snout to his skull and tries not to cry. “Look around. The planet is paralyzed. We’re being chased by Kravitz’s underlings. Vulpix…somehow, he went back to the past, and he hasn’t tried to attack us, not in the future. If we want to get home, we have to find him. Even if you don’t trust him, he managed to make it back to the past! To our world! And he said if we caught up with him, he’d help us.”

“I just.” Lup takes a deep breath, and steps back from Barry. She can see the scratches on his eye sockets perfectly, from this angle. Deep gouges, and she saw Kravitz grab him there with his horn. And she was powerless to stop him. “I trusted Kravitz,” she whispers. “I thought…he was my friend.”

“I did too,” Barry says, “but Lup, look at this. He lied to us. We don’t have the full story, but from what Vulpix has said…it sounds like he and Kravitz knew each other, at one point. If we want the full story, we have to talk to him.”

“Okay,” she says, “okay, Bear, I don’t…” she sighs. “I don’t think I can trust him, but I know that I trust you.”

Barry nods. “I trust you too, Lup,” he says, “if we team up with Vulpix, and he does anything to make you suspicious…please tell me.”

She nods. As they start to continue on, she calls, “hey, Barry?”

“Yeah?” he asks, turning around.

“Thank you,” she says, “for…talking to me. And being there.”

“Anytime, Lup,” he says, and they head into the unknown together.

* * *

Most of her time in the future has been running, which is why when Lup sees Vulpix, every single part of her body screaming at her to rest, and he’s collapsed in a heap on the floor, she thinks, _yeah, makes sense._

She doesn’t like him. But she trusts Barry and she wants to get back to her world, and he’s right. Vulpix is the best shot they have, no matter how much she hates him.

“Vulpix!” Lup calls, and she walks over to him, kicking at his side. “We caught up with you. Tell us what you know.”

“Get…back,” he snarls, weakly, and Lup pricks an ear in confusion. He sounds…really bad. Worse than I’m-dead-from-running bad, but I’m-actually-dying bad.

“Barry, I think he’s dying,” Lup calls, though she doesn’t really need to because Barry’s at her side. She looks back at Vulpix, his blue eyes glazed with pain. “What happened to you?”

“Enemy,” he spits out, “still here, it’s…” he groans, coughs up what looks like _blood,_ and Lup’s heart jumps into her throat. She’s not sure why—she still dislikes Vulpix, doesn’t trust him in the slightest. “…ugh, behind…”

“Behind?” Lup asks, shoving the weird feelings aside and yelling at her heart to chill the fuck out. She turns to look behind her. Nothing but a weirdly shaped rock, that’s flat on the bottom. “There’s just a rock, what are you—”

The room fills with cackling, wild, harsh laughter coming from what sounds like hundreds of different Pokémon. Lup jumps back, and trips over Vulpix’s paw.

“Sorry,” he says, rough. Lup frowns, pushing herself back to her paws. If whatever is in the room did that to Vulpix…

She turns around, slowly, and looks at the rock. It shakes. Once, twice, and then out from it comes a blur of green and purple, that solidifies into a vaguely pinwheel shape on top of the rock, with a mouth of green light in the center.

Lup takes a step closer to Barry.

“You who DARES to trespass,” says the not-rock, in a chorus of different voices, all echoing and speaking slightly out-of-sync, “after we, SPIRITOMB, have already taken CARE of your friend.”

Lup bites back what she wants to say: _he isn’t our friend!_ She’s smart enough to know that it’s not the time, and Barry does want to work with Vulpix. She shouldn’t be activity rude to him, not yet. Not until he proves himself an evil Pokémon.

“You WON’T be forgiven,” says not-rock, or Spiritomb, “prepare to be PUNISHED.”

Lup scowls. She’s upset, she’s tired, she wants to be out of this dumb world of darkness where she can only trust Barry. She launches for Spiritomb, and she breathes out all her rage as fire, feels it burning up inside and around her. Spiritomb screeches, a horrible sound that rings in Lup’s ears, and calls forth a purple, stabbing wind. Lup takes the hit, digs her claws deeper into Spiritomb to get a better grip.

Barry will be hurt badly, by this thing. She has to protect him.

“I am tired,” she spits, punctuating each word with flames, “of dealing with things. I am stuck in this shitty future, my friend was lying to me, I have to travel with the Pokémon who wanted to steal the time gears and end the world, and now? Now I have to deal with you?” She bares her teeth, and bites at the base of the swirling green-purple, as close to the rock as she can get. “Is this a joke?”

Spiritomb wails, and its colors flicker, before being sucked back into the not-rock. Lup stumbles off of it, her jaws aching and tasting like metal.

“We aren’t STUPID,” it says, but its voice is smaller now, weaker. It looks at her, at Barry, at Vulpix, and then back to her. She calls up fires, and Spiritomb yelps, before it runs away.

Lup wobbles, and collapses.

“Wow,” says Vulpix. “You’ve had a bad day, huh?” He says it, and even though she can’t see him, Lup knows deep in her heart that he’s smirking, and she wants to burn his dumb stupid face.

“What do you think?” she snarls, and Barry helps her up. She leans against him as they stumble over to Vulpix, who looks even rougher than she does. He still gets to his feet, and grins. Blood stains the sides of his jaws, bright against his off-white fur, and Lup’s stupid heart speeds yet again.

“Finally decided to trust me?” Vulpix asks.

“Never,” Lup snarls.

“We want to know your side of things,” Barry says, putting an arm around Lup to help keep her steady. “Kravitz lied to us, I know that much, and we don’t know what we can trust. I’d like to get as much information as I can, and then we can decide what we believe.”

“Hmm, you seem pretty decent,” Vulpix says, wincing when he puts weight on his left forepaw, and instead tucking it close to his chest. “Ah, fuck. Ghosty, any chance I could also lean on you?”

Barry rolls his eye. “Don’t cause trouble. Do you have a place we can rest at?”

“Up ahead, there’s a little cave,” Vulpix says, limping over to lean on Barry’s other side. “S’just one room, should hold us all.”

“Okay,” Barry says, “let’s go, then.”

It’s slow. Very slow. And that’s only partly because both she and Vulpix are leaning on Barry. She’s already tired, and she just fought Spiritomb, and Vulpix is in much the same boat. But the cave isn’t too far up, and they make it there soon enough, tucking away inside. Lup and Barry huddled together on one side, Vulpix on the other.

“Alright,” Vulpix says, “I’ll tell you my side of things. Ask questions, sure, but don’t accuse me of lying, even if you think I am. I’m not. My word means nothing to you, but there it is.”

He sighs, and he lays down, his injured paw tucked under his body. “The planet’s paralysis started back in your past, with the collapse of Temporal Tower. It was governed by Dialga, the Legendary Pokémon who controls time. When the tower collapsed, time went with it, and brought about the planet’s paralysis.”

“What about Dialga?” Barry asks.

“When time fucked up, Dialga lost control,” Vulpix says, “she lost all reason, all emotion, and in the future, right now, is driven only by self-preservation. She’s not Dialga, anymore, but Primal Dialga. In her eyes, if the collapse of Temporal Tower is stopped, then she will cease to exist. And that’s exactly what I’m trying to do. Prevent the collapse of Temporal Tower.”

“By stealing time gears?” Lup demands. “And stopping time when doing so?”

Vulpix waves his uninjured paw. “I’m getting to that. I went back in time, to change history. And that marked me as an enemy to Primal Dialga. To prevent Temporal Tower from collapsing, I did steal the time gears, but they are needed to stabilize Temporal Tower. Yes, time stops in a small area when one is taken, but if all five are placed in the tower, then time’s fall will be reversed, and return to normal, worldwide. Temporal Tower is on its way to collapse, in your past. And I plan to stop that from happening.”

“But,” Lup says, her voice cracking, “but Kravitz said you were an outlaw. A wanted criminal, and that’s why you fled back to our time.”

“Lies,” Vulpix says. He sighs, staring down at his paws. “Look, I’m sorry that he betrayed you. I get it.” His voice gets softer, though still tinted with bitterness.

“You know Kravitz, right?” Barry asks. “What did he do to you?”

“That’s veering real close into tragic backstory time,” Vulpix says, looking away. “But…ugh. I wasn’t the only one who tried to fix things, okay? There’s a small group of us. And…Kravitz was one. But he betrayed us, and joined Primal Dialga. That’s why he was in the past, he’s tracking me down to, as you saw he tried to do, kill me.”

“He…” Lup frowns, “but…if you really are trying to fix this world, why would anybody side with Primal Dialga? This paralyzed word, it’s shitty! And bad!”

“That’s something I ask myself a lot,” Vulpix says. He sighs, standing up. “I don’t know why he did what he did, but he did it. And that’s the world we live in. I’m going back to the past, to try again, and you two are welcome to join me.”

“Can we have a minute to talk?” Barry asks. “Alone?”

“Sure, but if the Sableye come, I’m gone,” Vulpix says. “Dusk Forest is just up here,” he points to the left, the way they’ve been heading this whole time. “You can meet me there, if you’re coming, and if you’re not, maybe come let me know, so I don’t waste my time. Cool beans?”

They both nod, and Vulpix leaves them alone.

“Well, Lup?” Barry asks. “What do you think?”

“I…” she starts, staring down at the rock below her. “I think…the stuff about Temporal Tower makes sense. It explains why the world is still paralyzed now, even if we have the time gears and put them back where they belong. But…he’s trying to save the world?”

“Yeah,” Barry says, “pretty much the opposite of everything we were told about him.”

“I want to get back to the past,” she says, “and to do that, we have to go with him. Do you believe him?”

“Mostly, yes,” Barry says, “I don’t know how much I believe about what he said about Kravitz, he was really vague, but all the Temporal Tower stuff, and even the idea that he went back in time to prevent its collapse…I believe that.”

“Then we’re going after him,” Lup says, and she lets out a breathless laugh. “This is all so stupid! Why is this our life!”

She stands to her paws, feeling a bit better with the rest. She could maybe walk all the way to—

“Hey, wait,” she says, “Vulpix said Dusk Forest. That’s where Kravitz said he grew up.”

“Huh,” Barry says. He looks at her, eye glinting. “You think…he also mentioned that his moms fought, right? And he had to pick a side? You don’t think…it was about this? One mom worked for Primal Dialga; the other was trying to work against her?”

“Fuck,” Lup says, and Barry laughs, and she can’t help but join him. They’re both still snickering when they leave the safety of their cave, and head for the forest. True to Vulpix’s word, and Lup can’t believe she’s thinking ‘true’ in relation to him, the forest isn’t that far away, and Vulpix is there, waiting for them. He looks a lot better than he since she saw him last, though: he’s standing on all four paws, some of his cuts are gone, and doesn’t seem to be in pain.

“You came,” he says, “very cool. Now, hurry up, I’ll explain on the way. Oh, also.” He turns around, runs over to a nearby tree, and jumps up, digging his claws into a low-hanging branch. From there, he pulls himself onto the branch, and inches over to the truck, climbing up a few more feet before he grabs something from a little hole in the trunk, and hops back down to the ground. “Oran Berries! Celebi kept the cache stocked!”

“Celebi?” Barry asks, as Lup creeps forwards to sniff at the Oran Berries in front of Vulpix. They smell fine, and she tastes one, and oh, that’s good. She swallows the rest of the berry, and grabs the stem of the other one to bring it over to Barry. He eats it, and offers Vulpix a smile.

“Friend of mine,” Vulpix says, beckoning them over with his tails as he starts making his way deeper into the forest. “She sent me back in time the first time. However, she’s also being targeted by Primal Dialga, since she helped in trying to change history. So, uh, we should hurry.”

“How did she send you back in time?” Barry asks.

“She’s the time travel Pokémon. Celebi can send Pokémon forwards and backwards in time. She’s pretty cool. Also, and this is going to blow your minds.” Vulpix stops, turning around to face them. “Get this. She’s Kravitz’s mom.”

“I knew it!” Barry says, “I knew that was what the conflict was! Does his other mom work for Primal Dialga?”

“Uh-huh,” Vulpix says, grinning. “I’m so glad you love it so much, because this is the best piece of blackmail I have on Kravitz. I’m better friends with his mom than he is! Ah, it’s pretty great.”

With that, they resume their trip. They aren’t running, anymore, moving more at a steady trot, and Lup appreciates that. It’s easier on her lungs, and the rest of her body. But the deeper they get into Dusk Forest, the weirder she feels. It’s…a sensation, like she’s forgotten something she was just about to say, and it’s on the tip of her tongue but she can’t quite find it.

“Vulpix,” Barry starts, breaking the silence, and the off-white Vulpix flicks an ear their direction, “when you were looking for the time gears, how did you find them? Were you following us?”

“Nah,” he says. “Well. I knew where they were, mostly, me and everyone had been studying them for a while before we went back. I knew pretty much where they were in the future, and how to find them—like, Fogbound Lake’s fog trick, figured that shit out. But I didn’t know the exact locations in the past, since everything is way different. I found some cave that told me one was in Treeshroud Forest, which was pretty helpful, and then I came across some ruins that told me the location of the one at Fogbound Lake. From there, I knew at least two more were also at lakes, so I just went looking. Me running into you at Underground Lake was a coincidence, but I just spun it to my advantage so I wouldn’t have to fight all three of you.”

That reminds Lup—she felt this way at Foggy Forest, before they found Fogbound Lake! And in the Northern Desert! This feeling like she’s been here before…but why would she feel it at Dusk Forest? The other two places, maybe it’s possible she went there before, but there’s no way she came to some random forest in the future!

Or…maybe she has been to this spot, just in the past? That would make sense.

They emerge into a clearing, and it’s like a flare, in her head. She whines low, squeezes her eyes shut even though it can’t be light related, everything is in a state of perpetual darkness. And then, she’s hit with something. A memory?

It’s sensations. Pride, again, and fear, and courage. Something warm in her arms—arms? She doesn’t have those, so…is this memory from when she was human? And then a voice, terrified but strong: _this better fucking work._

She staggers back at the weight of it, but it’s over in a split second, and only Barry has noticed, as he’s at her side. She shakes her head, because she’s fine, nothing hurts anymore. It’s just. That voice.

That was Vulpix’s voice. Why would his voice be in her memories? It doesn’t make _sense,_ is the thing, unless…it’s a trick? But how could Vulpix give her false memories? That’s not something a Vulpix can do, from what she knows.

“Celebi!” Vulpix calls, in the middle of the clearing. Lup shakes off the memory. It doesn’t matter. What matters is getting back to the past and stopping the planet’s paralysis. “Were you really caught? Because that’s just depressing; I know for a fact you’re smarter than your kid.”

“No, I wasn’t caught,” says a new voice, and Lup looks up to see a pink Pokémon, roughly her size, floating just near Vulpix. Is this Celebi? She can’t hide her grin. A time traveling Pokémon, and she’s the same size as Lup! About time. Lup’s done being so much shorter than literally everybody she meets. “Just had to wait for the right time to teleport over here. How are you? And who are your friends? I’m Istus.” She directs this final part to Lup and Barry.

“Almost died and fucked up real bad in the past, so I’ve been better. And, uh, I think the ghost one is named Barry, dunno about the other Vulpix. She won’t give me her name.”

“You don’t deserve my name,” Lup tells Vulpix, fixing him with a glare, before walking over to Celebi—Istus. Istus looks at her, and frowns.

“Hmm,” Istus says. “You remind me of someone.”

Uh, what? Lup frowns, but decides to ignore that. “You can get us back to the past?”

“I can, yes,” Istus says, “I’ll explain more as we walk. The Passage of Time—how you’d go back in time, for Barry and Vulpix—is on a plateau above the forest, and with Dialga even more on edge since last time, teleporting with so many of you would just call attention to us.”

“Oh, we _are_ being chased by Sableye and your traitor son,” Vulpix says, taking the lead with Istus. Lup hangs back, a little, her ears pricked. “So, uh. Keep that in mind. Sorry we led them to your forest.”

“Kravitz knows where I live,” Istus says, “he just chooses to avoid me.”

“What happened with Kravitz?” Lup asks. “Why is he evil? I thought…”

She’s come to accept the fact that maybe he wasn’t ever her friend. Friends don’t try to kill their friends.

“I already told you, he betrayed us all,” Vulpix says with a snort.

“Well, I don’t trust you,” Lup shoots back.

“Kravitz used to help us,” Istus says, “but as Vulpix said, he betrayed us and went to work for Dialga. I have my suspicions as to why, but…I can never know for certain.” She sighs. “We need to hurry to the Passage of Time.”

“Yup,” Vulpix agrees, and they’re running, again.

It’s a shorter run, this time around, but it’s mostly up a winding path, until they’re finally atop the plateau and looking out on the frozen world beyond them. Lup steels herself. However this happened…if it started with the collapse of Temporal Tower…she has to fix this. She can’t let this world be their future. If that means working with Vulpix, then…

As much as she dislikes him, Lup can’t keep lying to herself. He’s telling the truth. It’s the only explanation, between his and Kravitz’s, that makes sense, and fits with the world she sees around her.

“The Passage of Time,” Vulpix mutters, and Lup looks up to see what he’s looking at. A blue, shimmering gate at the opposite end of the small plateau, made of three archways. Its light is a soft glow, and Lup feels something singing in her heart, telling her that _yes, this is it, save the world._

“I’ll open it,” Istus says, and she floats forward a few inches.

“And that’ll be all!” calls a voice, and Lup’s ears go flat because she knows that voice. “Hello, you four. It’s been a while, some more than others.”

Kravitz emerges from the shadows, in front of the Passage of Time, and with a quick, echoing bark, they’re surrounded by six Sableye.

“Well, shit,” Vulpix mutters, as the four are them are pressed back into each other as the Sableye advance. “I was really hoping we wouldn’t have to fight.”

“Glad to see you’ve finally decided to visit,” Istus says, eyeing Kravitz. He ignores her, and crouches into a defensive position, teeth bared.

“You’ll try to fight?” he asks. Vulpix snorts out a laugh.

“Haven’t left us any other choice, have you?” he asks, and he spins to face Kravitz, eyes narrowed and tails brandished out behind him like a sword. “Just had to get in that last word, huh? Didn’t think we’d be able to fight you again? I’ve beaten you before, Krav.”

“Haven’t the last few times,” Kravitz says, and there’s a nasty grin on his face. That isn’t her friend. Lup knows that now, for sure. Whatever Kravitz was the one who was her roommate and that she talked to on the beach…it was all a lie. She lets fire build up in her gut, and waits for the call.

“I did escape, so like, uh, who’s really the loser here? It ain’t me.” Vulpix shakes himself, tensed for battle. “Any second now, you three,” he whispers.

“And you thought I came alone?” Kravitz asks. Both Vulpix and Istus jump at that, and Vulpix snaps his teeth in a snarl.

Then everything goes dark. Not night-dark, but empty dark, the darkness of there being nothing and no one, just alone with your thoughts. And Lup knows, she knows that Barry is just beside her, but she can’t see him or feel him and she is, for the first time in her life, completely alone.

A roar splits the air, and when the darkness fades away, she sees, standing tall on a cliff just above the Passage of Time, a Pokémon. A giant, with dark blue skin, orange, pulsing markings running down, and silver plating at its feet, chest, sticking out from its back, and wrapping around its red-eyed face and ending in horns. In the center of its chest is a sickly red gem.

It roars, again, and it’s easily the loudest thing Lup’s ever heard.

“Primal Dialga,” Vulpix stutters out, his ears flattening as he tries to cower backwards, but just bumps into Lup. “Fuck, shit, we’re so fucked, you guys.”

“Great family reunion, we’re having,” Istus mutters, glaring up at Primal Dialga, and her wings flutter, a bit—not nearly as scared as Vulpix, but it’s not like things are just peachy. Lup is pressed as close to Barry as she possibly can be, but that’s somehow not enough. If their guides from the future are so terrified…is there any hope?

“Oh, where’d your bravado go, Taako?” Kravitz asks, and Vulpix snarls.

“Fuck you,” he spits, “giving out my name like that, just…” He’s shaking, but that’s not what Lup’s paying attention to.

Taako? Why is that name…why does it fill her with pride and joy and annoyance and love? She doesn’t know Vulpix, or Taako, or whoever the fuck he is! Why has her brain decided to put meaning behind some dumb name for a Pokémon she doesn’t even like?

“Haven’t told them yet, huh?” Kravitz says. He seems amused, like this is all just a joke to him, and Lup kinda wants to set his face on fire and laugh as it melts.

“Sorry, gang,” Taako says, lowering his head, “we’re all dying here, no point in pretending otherwise. We can’t beat Primal Dialga. But…” he looks to Barry, to Lup. “I promise, I really was trying to save the world. And when we die here…” he turns back to Kravitz, standing tall. “Hope is still alive.”

“Hope?” Lup asks, and she hates how quiet and weak her voice is.

“I didn’t go back alone,” Taako says, “I had a partner. My sister. And…she won’t ever hear me say this, and if any of us live through this by some miracle and tell her this I will come back from the dead to fucking kill you, but of the two of us, she was the better one, the smarter one, the braver one.” He grins, fierce and proud. “She’s still back there. When we traveled back together, we were separated. She’ll finish what I failed to.”

Lup breaths out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. As long as the world is saved, and this is prevented…she can accept her death. She doesn’t want to die! She really doesn’t! But if it means Taako’s sister back in time can save the world, well. Hopefully her death will mean something.

Kravitz, though, Kravitz just laughs. He laughs, and laughs until it turns into crying, and then he’s wiping his eyes with a paw, and grinning, and Lup hates that grin with everything in her.

“What’s so funny?” Taako demands. “You know my sister, you fucking met her! She’d throw you off the tallest mountain in a heartbeat! She’s threatened to do it! Twice! And that was before you went and betrayed us!”

“Humor me, Koko,” Kravitz says, and Taako growls, lunging for Kravitz, but Istus grabs him by the scruff before he can get any further. Taako struggles in her grasp, but she holds him tight.

“He’s baiting you, Taako,” she snaps, “drop it.”

“You have no right to call me that!” Taako yowls. His pelt is prickling with ice, and Lup can feel it despite her own flames, his bone-cold hatred for Kravitz. “You fucking—traitor, I’m going to—”

“I’m fine to sit back and watch you die,” Kravitz says, “but before I do that, I’d just like one thing. What was your sister’s name? I’m sure you know it.”

“Do I know my own sister’s name—yes, I know her name! It’s Lup! You also know her name, what the hell is the point of this? Trying to manufacture my last words?”

Lup feels her heart stop in her chest.

“But,” Barry says, “this is Lup.”

Taako doesn’t even spare her a second glance. “She shares a name with the coolest person ever, good for her. My Lup was a human.”

“Precisely!” Kravitz says, as though this is the funniest thing he’s ever heard. “And that Vulpix right there, well, she used to be a human!”

“No,” Taako says, but his voice is shaking as he looks back at her, eyes wide. “No, you can’t…she’s in the past! She’s safe! Because, because if she’s my Lup then that means she doesn’t remember me and—and—”

“When I was sent to the past,” Kravitz says, “Dialga gave me a mission to eliminate you, Taako, and your sister, Lup. When I teamed up with the guild, imagine my surprise when I met a Vulpix named Lup! At first, I brushed it off as just a coincidence, but then one day, Lup brought me to the beach, and told me that she used to be a human, but she had lost all her memories. And to further solidify any of my remaining doubts, not only did she used to be human, but she also possessed the Dimensional Scream!”

“You’re lying,” Taako says, but even Lup can tell he doesn’t believe a word he’s saying. “Fuck you. Lup’s in the past and, hey, you know what? I’ve decided something! I’m gonna survive this, and I’m going to find her, and we’re going to laugh about this over your fucking grave! How’s that sound?”

He snarls at Kravitz one final time, and Kravitz just rolls his eyes before signaling for the Sableye to advance.

“Taako,” Istus starts, but he shakes his head.

“No,” he says, “we have to get out of this, don’t even try to comfort me, it doesn’t fucking…” he takes a shuddering breath, and refuses to look at Lup. “We’re all going to die here, aren’t we?” He laughs, heaving and bitter.

“Istus,” Barry says, “is there any way you could teleport us to the Passage of Time? You said you can do that, right?”

“Not when Dialga is here,” she says, “but…maybe enough to get us a bit closer.”

She grabs the three of them, and suddenly, they aren’t surrounded by Sableye anymore. Or, they are, but they’re also in thousands of other places and it’s all a bit too much for Lup to try and comprehend, so she just lets images swarm in front of her eyes and doesn’t think too hard about it.

But then, she hears another earth-shaking roar, and a sound like glass shattering, and she’s just in one place—past the Sableye and Kravitz, just a few paces away from the Passage of Time.

“Dialga broke our path,” Istus says. “Go, get back to the past! Stop the planet’s paralysis, and change history! I’ll be fine. And, Taako—”

Taako nods, and he glances to Lup. “I know,” he says, “I’ll…figure something out.”

And with that, the three of them dive into the Passage of Time.

The last thing Lup sees of the future is a bright light as Istus teleports away, and she grins as she digs her claws into Barry’s cape, holding onto him no matter how hard the Passage of Time tries to tear them apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to my favorite chapter of this entire goddamn story i love lup and taako and their dynamic SO FUCKING MUCH. literally. this was SO FUN TO WRITE, at least, im assuming, this whole thing was written in a week, but all 7000+ words of this were all written in a day. god. these twins are so fucking good you guys i would die for the both of them. obviously, as i have written nearly 300k words of taako content in the past two months.
> 
> next chapter coming in a week!


	7. A New Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back in their own time, Lup and Barry have to work together with Taako to save the world before time freezes forever. In other words, a pretty normal day.

“Ow…” Lup groans, pushing herself to her feet. It wasn’t a smooth ride, and when the Passage of Time spat them out, she landed hard on the ground, and then Barry landed on top of her. When she gets up, Barry’s already floating, shaking sand out of his cape. Sand?

Lup looks down. Oh. The beach. The beach! Does that mean they’re back in their time? She looks around, frantic, and yes! The sand is a gentle yellowish brown, the blue water lapping at the shore, the sun warm on her back. They did it!

“Barry!” Lup cheers, and she rears up on her hind paws to thump her head against his skull. “We did it! We’re back!” She drops back to all fours, and laughs at the warm sand underpaw, half-tempted to roll around in it, just to prove that it's here and real and  _she's_ here and real and nobody is going to take that from her. 

“Shit, that isn’t any easier the second time,” Taako mutters, and Lup turns to see him at almost the same spot she woke up the first time she met Barry, sitting and rubbing at his head with a paw. “Huh. We’re all alive.” He glances to Lup. “What Kravitz said…”

“It was true,” Lup confirms, and all that giddy excitement dies in a second. Right. He's apparently her brother. “I actually first woke up about where you are now, and I didn’t remember anything except that my name was Lup and I was a human. And I do have the Dimensional Scream.”

“You don’t know anything about me? Even the smallest of things?” Taako asks, and he looks so desperate that Lup can’t help but feel bad for him. If she really was his sister, then…

“When I first heard your name,” Lup says, “it made me…feel. A lot of emotions. Like it was important to me. But…no. I don’t remember you.”

She can’t begin to imagine what he must be feeling. If she woke up one day and Barry didn’t remember her…maybe it would be like that. Not the same, because Barry isn’t her brother, but similar enough.

“That’s.” Taako sighs. “It’s not your fault. Where are we?”

“Treasure Town,” Barry says. “Oh! That’s good, we can go back to the guild and let them know we’re okay.”

“I’m a criminal in this world,” Taako says, frowning, “will I be okay if I go to the guild?”

“Probably not,” Barry says. “Um…okay, I think there’s another place we can go to, but to get there, we’d have to either sneak through Treasure Town or go around the beach and half swim, half climb there.”

“We can swim,” Lup says, when both Barry and Taako look to her. “I don’t care. I don’t…” she turns to Taako. “I believe you,” she tells him, “I want to help prevent the planet’s paralysis and after everything I saw in the future, I think you were telling the truth.”

“Love the words of confidence, Lulu,” Taako says, and he grins at her as he stands to his feet.

“Lup,” she corrects, “my name is Lup.”

“Yeah?” Taako tilts his head. “That’s what I said.”

“You called me ‘Lulu,’” Lup says, and there’s a flash of something, in Taako’s eyes, but she doesn’t know what.

“Oh,” he says. “Um. Sorry. Won’t happen again.” His ears droop. “Barry, was it? Lead the way.”

Barry’s route involves skirting around the cliff that makes up Treasure Town, wading through the low tides as they do so, until they’re at the very end of the cliff, where she and Taako drag themselves up and Barry helps when either of them are about to slip. When they’re finally to the top, Lup coughs and shakes herself, and Taako stumbles over to her, like he’s coming to lean against her, but catches himself and stops before he makes it.

Lup doesn’t know him. But…she believes his story. If human-her was Taako’s sister, come to save the world, then Vulpix-her is going to finish that job, with Barry.

“Okay,” Barry says, while Lup and Taako catch their breaths. “This is called Sharpedo Bluff, because it looks sorta like a Sharpedo from a distance. Over here…” and he drifts over to a bush, that he brushes aside to revel a little tunnel hidden underneath it, “is a path down to a cave in the cliff, and you can’t see it from Treasure Town. I used to sleep here before I started talking to the guild Pokémon, though now I really just use it if I want to be alone. As far as I know, nobody else knows about it.”

“Perfect hideout, then,” Taako agrees, and the three of them squeeze into the hole. Well, Lup and Taako do. Barry phases through the ceiling, and when they make their way down the tunnel and into the cave, he’s just floating there.

Lup looks around. It’s not the biggest, but it’s a little circular cave, roughly half of it open so she can look over the jagged rocks that stick up from the top and bottom of the ‘window’ and see the ocean spreading as far as she can see. There’s a little well of water opposite the window, and vines growing down from the walls. The ground, while rock, is covered in a thin layer of dried grass, and in one corner is an old, unused straw nest.

“I’m glad nobody’s found this place,” Barry says. “Sorry it’s messy, I haven’t been back here since I met Lup…a month ago? Seems like so much has happened, since then.”

“Yeah,” Lup agrees, “just a month ago, and we thought we’d just be a normal exploration team! And now look at us! Hiding from our guild with a wanted outlaw who’s my brother?” She looks to Taako, who’s staring outside at the setting sun. “Hey, Taako. Can you tell us more about…well, me? If I was a human, how did we end up as siblings?”

He sighs, and walks back over to them. “Yeah. Sure. Before we do that, though…are the two of you going to help me? Because after this, I’m going back after the time gears, and I’m going to save the world.”

“I’m going to help you,” Barry says.

“And so am I,” Lup agrees. “When I first saw the sunrise, after learning that the time gears had been stolen…I wanted to do anything I could to make sure that never happened again, that nobody could ever take sunrise from anybody else.”

Taako huffs, grinning. “I was overwhelmed when I saw my first sunrise,” he says, “it’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Yes!” Lup agrees, her paws moving her closer to Taako almost without her wanting them to, though she does stop herself halfway, a paw still raised, not sure where to go, instead. “It’s like…like, you see it, and there's proof that the new day has come, and there's hope that we can do this, and there's something back here so pretty and wonderful and why wouldn't you want something like that? A sunrise that moves and changes and brings light and color?”

Taako grins at her, and completes the distance between them to bump gentle against her. “That first sunrise you saw, and I saw, that really was our first,” he says, “you saw the future. The sun never rises there, and the both of us were born after the planet had already been paralyzed. It’s…yeah. To know something that colorful can really exist…sure is something.”

He goes to sit in the old nest, sneezing at the dust. “Hey, before we talk, is there any way we can make some real nests? And get some food?”

“It might involve some sneaking, but probably,” Barry says.

They manage to grab enough materials for three beds, and even a few apples, all without being caught. By the time they return to their cave, eat dinner, and set up their nests, it’s nighttime, and the only light is that of the moon, shining in through the mouth of their chamber. They arrange their nests in a circle, of sorts, Barry and Lup’s pushed together, and Taako’s on the other side.

Lup curls up next to Barry, and they both listen to Taako.

“Me and Lup, we were both orphans from a young age,” Taako says, “and we just. Dunno. Found each other? I don’t remember a life without Lup, the only reason I know we had to of run into each other is because we were obviously different species. The future…a lot of Pokémon were in it for themselves, and not many would stick around to help two kids. The fact that Lup was a human and I a Vulpix didn’t matter. She’s my sister. I’m her brother. It was just another fact of life.

“When we were adults, we met Istus, and she was looking into the cause of the planet’s paralysis, along with her son, Kravitz. Her wife, I’ve never met her, but she was working for Primal Dialga from the start. Me and Lup decided to work with her, because the future? Fucking dogshit. We knew it could be better. And we investigated the time gears, and Temporal Tower, and all of that stuff, for years, using Lup’s Dimensional Scream to help us.”

“Can you explain how it works?” Lup asks. “I know it lets me see the past or future, but…that’s all I know.”

“It’s set off by triggers tied to places where time gears are,” Taako explains, “we’d use it to figure out where time gears would be in the past, and how to get to them. With Fogbound Lake, for example, we used it to figure out that we needed to put the Drought Stone in Groudon’s chest, so then when we went back in time, we already knew what we had to do. It also needs someone the user trusts nearby, for it to work, which made me perfect for the job.”

“It’s been working ever since me and Lup met, though,” Barry says.

“I trust you,” Lup tells him, touching her paw to his hand. His eye squints in a smile. “Obviously. Is it only set off by time gears, though? Because once, it told us when a kid was about to be killed.”

“The cave!” Barry says. “In that cave where the stolen stuff was, remember how I saw some carvings of three lakes? Three time gears were found at the lakes, you think that carving had to do with it?”

“Probably,” Taako says, “three lakes often correspond with the three lake guardians—Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf—and the time gears they protect. Back to my story, right when we all decided okay, the plan is, me and Lup go back in time and gather the time gears, while Istus and Kravitz cover for us and try to keep Primal Dialga distracted, Kravitz…left. And joined with Primal Dialga. And that fucked everything up: there was no element of surprise, we had to rush into doing things, and maybe that’s why me and Lup were separated, I don’t know. But even without her, I knew she would be able to do this on her own, and so I did my part. Collected the time gears, and all.”

“I,” Lup starts, “I think I remember bits of that…not as like, a story, but the first time I heard about the time gears being stolen and time stopping, I felt like that was my purpose. To prevent time from stopping, and restore it.”

Taako smiles, at that. “Well, you’re doing it now,” he says, “and, Lup…I was terrified when we were separated. I’m glad you’re okay. I’m glad you didn’t have to face this all alone. Being alone…it was the hardest thing I ever had to do.”

Lup rests her head in her paws, and doesn’t meet Taako’s eyes, because she’s pretty sure she can’t. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, “I wish I remembered you.”

“None of this is your fault,” he says. “We should get to bed. We’ll have to get up early tomorrow to start collecting time gears, again.”

“Which one?” Barry asks, and Lup noses against him. She hates that Taako was alone. She knows, deep in her bones, that he’s right. Loneliness is the hardest thing to do, and to think that he did all of this alone, without _her,_ or, who she used to be…

“Treeshroud Forest’s doesn’t have a protector,” Taako says, “so, that one, probably.” He yawns. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Taako,” Barry says. “Goodnight, Lup.”

“Goodnight,” Lup whispers. She waits until Barry’s breathing has evened out, before she asks, soft, “Taako?”

“Yeah, Lup?” he asks.

“Did…did I use to call you Koko?”

“You did,” he says, “but…you don’t have to. You can just keep calling me Taako. We aren’t… anything. Maybe acquaintances.”

“No,” she says, “not to you. You probably know more about me than I know about me.” She swallows. “Can you tell me about her?”

“Lup is amazing,” Taako says, and he sounds proud, “she’s smart, and brave, and caring, and just…everything. She knows what she has to do, and she does it. She was the one who came up with the idea to save the world. She convinced me to go along, and I did, because wherever Lup went, I followed. I love her, more than anything else in this world. She’s the best person I’ve ever met, human or Pokémon.”

“She sounds great,” Lup says.

“She is,” Taako agrees, “you are. Even if you don’t remember…you’re still Lup.”

Lup nods, rubs the tears out of her eyes, and falls asleep dreaming about the brother she barely knows.

* * *

When Lup wakes up, it’s to find that she’s alone in her cave, Barry no longer next to her and Taako no longer in his nest across from her. She jolts to her paws, because is this it? Were they both captured in the night? But by who? If it was Kravitz who found them, she would be taken, and if it was the guild, it would only be Taako. Where are they?

She runs up the stairs, barely noticing the sunrise, and drags herself out from under the bush despite the brambles that claw at her fur. She’s frantic, terrified, but when she turns around and sees both Barry and Taako, sitting together and watching the sunrise, she sags with relief as she goes to join them.

“Never do that again,” she says, squeezing between the both of them. She rests her head against Barry’s side, and when her tails brush against Taako’s, she lets them. Even if she doesn’t remember him, that doesn’t stop the relief that washes over her knowing that he’s okay.

“Sorry, Lup,” Barry says, giving her a squeeze that she noses into. “I was just talking to Taako. We should’ve left a note, or something.”

“I can’t lose you,” she tells him, and she lets the morning light warm her fur. Seeing this sunrise after the hell of the future…it’s good. This is what they’re stealing time gears for, so Pokémon everywhere can sit with the ones they love and not have to worry.

Taako is the first one to break the silence, standing up in a stretch. “We should really be going,” he says. “It’ll probably take the full day to get there, get the time gear, and get back, assuming nobody tries to stop us.”

It’s afternoon by the time they reach Treeshroud Forest, and Lup looks up as they walk through the tall, arching trees of the forest, with leaves that blot out the sky. It gives the entire forest a dark and shadowed atmosphere, and Taako keeps stopping and shaking himself, like he’s got bugs in his ears.

“Taako?” Barry finally asks one time, when Lup pokes at him to do so. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just—feels different, this forest. I’m probably imagining it.” He flattens his ears. “Let’s just keep going until we get the time gear. Then we can figure out where to go from there.”

The forest just gets darker, and stiller, they deep they go in, and Lup now feels what she thinks Taako felt—a prickling unease down her spine. She keeps looking around, and everything just seems wrong, like Treeshroud Forest is just playing at being itself, and not doing a good job, to boot.

“Does everything seem…too dark?” Barry asks, and Lup nods.

“I haven’t felt the wind in a while,” she adds.

“Aw, fuck,” Taako says, as they come to a stop in a clearing where the path they’ve been following comes to a stop. Lup looks at what he sees, and she sees the time gear, hovering just above some rocks, bordered on either side by trees, and the blue-green radiance held up by vines. But…the radiance isn’t that bright, and when Lup looks down at the grass below her paws, it’s more gray than green.

“Time is stopped?” she guesses, and Taako nods, hopping up on the rock to grab the time gear in his jaws. When it’s removed, the forest goes darker, until Lup can’t even see the faint suggestion of color.

Taako drops the time gear, and Barry goes to pick it up, since he’s the only one out of the three of them with arms. “Temporal Tower must be collapsing faster than I thought,” he says, “if the time gears have been returned but time isn’t restored…then we don’t have much time.”

“How many time gears are there?” Barry asks, tucking the one he’s holding in his cape. “Will we even have enough time to find all of them?”

“Five,” Taako says. “We’ll have to split up.” He sits, and beckons for Lup and Barry to join him. Lup does, curls her tails around her paws, while Barry hovers at her shoulder. “Once we have all five time gears, we have to bring them to Temporal Tower, where, at the top of the tower, we can place them, and time will stabilize. The thing is, we have to find Temporal Tower, and nobody knows where it is in the past.”

“But you do, right?” Lup asks, standing and stepping closer to Taako. “Because you and me, we studied it, right?”

He sighs. “We did, but the thing about Temporal Tower is that it’s somewhere called the Hidden Land. Like the name suggests, it’s hidden. Nothing is known about it, and if there was any information on its location, it’s been long since destroyed in the future. And I mean, I know where it is in the future—but it’s all crumbled and nobody can actually get near it, so I have no idea where that would be back here. We’ll have to split up if we’re going to do this in time. Lup, me and you can head after the time gears, while Barry can look into the Hidden Land. We can meet back up…on the beach, in a week, at the longest. Hopefully before then.”

“A week?” Barry says, jumping. “A week to find a land nobody knows anything about?”

“We are on a time crunch,” Taako snaps, “if you can’t find it, then the world is doomed! Just…do your best.”

“Taako,” Lup says, “I’m going to work with Barry.”

“Wait, what?” Taako asks, turning to her, disbelief in his eyes. “You’re my sister, Lulu, why would you—”

He cuts himself off, and drops his gaze to his paws.

“Yeah,” she says. “But, Taako…”

He offers her a small smile. “You don’t have to pretend,” he says. “I’m sorry I fucked up. I know…I know you don’t remember me, and you aren’t the Lup I remember. But you’re still Lup. You’re still yourself, at your core. And you not remembering me, that isn’t your fault. It’s going to take me a while to get used to that, but…don’t feel like you’re obligated to me because human-you was my sister.”

“I’m sorry,” Lup says, “your name reminds me of home, Taako, and I wish I could remember you! After all of this is over, I want to get to know you again, I really do! But right now, I want to be with Barry. He’s my best friend.”

“I know,” Taako says, and he stands up, “you’re lucky, Lup. To have a friend like Barry.” He grabs a vine hanging down from a tree, and yanks it lose. Barry hands him the time gear, and Taako threads the vine through the center of the time gear. Barry takes it, ties it into a necklace, and before he can give it back to Taako, Lup takes it.

“Here,” she says, and she slips the time gear necklace over Taako’s head, so it hangs at his chest. She takes a step back, and looks at him, her brother. “Taako…”

She nuzzles against him in a hug, her head pressed to his. “I promise,” she says, “when this is all over, the first chance we get…I’m going to get to know you.”

He nuzzles back into her, and Lup’s heart seizes up in her chest. It’s like coming home, like finding her heart again—and she doesn’t want to ever forget this. She might not remember him, not consciously, but some part of her is screaming _heart love family_ and she trusts those words, because everything about them rings true. How could she ever doubt Taako?

“Thank you,” he says, muffled in her fur. “I love you, Lup.”

“Me too,” Lup says, soft, and she knows the words to be true. “I’ll see you again?”

“One way or another,” Taako says, and when he steps out of their hug, his eyes are shiny with tears. “Good luck, Lup. And Barry…just. Remember what I said this morning.”

“I know, Taako,” Barry says.

Taako grins. “Seeya in a week.”

He bounds off into the forest, leaving Lup and Barry alone in the time-frozen clearing that once contained a time gear.

“We should go, too,” Barry says, “if we’re going to figure out where the Hidden Land is.”

Lup snorts as she starts heading back the way they came, back to Treasure Town and their little hidden home. “The name couldn’t be any less vague,” she says, “not even, ‘might have a waterfall,’ or any hints whatsoever.”

“Yeah, shit,” Barry says. “Where are we even supposed to start looking? Hidden…across the ocean? Most land there hasn’t been explored, from what I know.”

“Yes, because I can swim across the ocean,” Lup says, amused. “Barry…do you think the guild might have records on the Hidden Land?”

“Might be our best bet,” Barry says. “I’m not sure we’d be able to get in alone, though…”

“Wait,” Lup says, stopping as the idea hits her. “We don’t have Taako with us. The guild trusts us. Why don’t we just walk in, explain what happened, and then we’ll have the entire guild to help us hunt for the Hidden Land? And then if everyone knows Taako’s on our side, he won’t have to fight for three of the time gears! And things will go way faster!”

Barry nods, and Lup jumps into a run. “That’s great!” he says. “And here I was like oh, yeah, let’s just sneak in!” He laughs as the two of them race back for the guild.

“Hey, I would’ve loved to try sneaking in,” Lup says, “but maybe not when we have a deadline of a week to find the Hidden Land, and we know, let’s see, uh, nothing!” She snorts. “We’re both kinda dumb. Oh, yeah, when Taako left, what did he mean about what he’d said that morning? What were you talking about?”

“He was thanking me. For being there for you, and not just writing him off as a liar first thing in the future. And also…I showed him my Relic Fragment. He didn’t know anything about it, but it was worth a shot.”

Lup nods. She doesn’t…she distrusted Taako, at the beginning, but. She was confused, and she’d just been betrayed, and really, nothing in the future made sense besides Barry. “One day we’ll figure out your Relic Fragment,” she says.

“After we save the world, maybe,” he says, and Lup smiles.

It takes the rest of the day to get back to Treasure Town, and by then, it’s almost nighttime. Lup and Barry trudge the final few steps up to the guild, and Lup stumbles onto the grate in front of the door. They’ll have to explain everything, but…maybe in the morning? She’s not sure. It’s a lot, for one night, and it’ll take a long time, and she does just want to sleep.

“Hey,” Barry says, noticing her dozing off on her feet. “We don’t have to tell them everything right away. We’ll still have six days.”

“Good,” she says, yawning. “I want my old nest back.”

“Pokémon detected!” Magnus calls, and Lup wants to grin. She hasn’t had to do this since the first time she joined the guild, and it’s…stupid. Of all the guild Pokémon, and she really hasn’t done a good job at getting to know them, but she has spent the most time with Magnus and Julia, not counting Barry, obviously. When they save the world, that’s going to change. She’ll actually try to get to know more of her fellow guildmembers.

“Who is it?” It’s Julia who answers.

“It’s me, Lup!” Lup yells, “and Barry, too!

“Wait.” Magnus, again, and he sounds stunned. “You’ve been gone for like, three days! Where were you?”

“Was it really three days?” Lup mutters, looking back at Barry. He shrugs. Her time in the future feels just like one big day, especially without the rise and set of the sun to pass the time by. But three? Days? That’s…a lot.

The doors to the guild rumble open, and both Magnus and Julia rush out to meet them.

“Yes, three days!” Julia says, bounding up to Lup, her tail lashing with excitement. “Nobody knew where you went! What happened?”

Magnus grabs Lup in a hug, and oh, okay, she’s being pretty much smushed. He also snags Barry, who was trying to float off, and Lup snorts, squirming in Magnus’s arms until he puts her down.

“Did you fall into the Dimensional Hole on accident?” Magnus asks, “that’s what I thought, but most of the guild assumed you went off on your own because you wanted to be alone. I know you two and Kravitz had been hanging out. Ooh, did you go in after him? Hey, wait.” Magnus squints at Barry. “Why are your eye sockets all scratched up?”

“There’s a lot that’s happened,” Lup says, as the four of them enter the guild. “Random question, but what happened with the time gears? Were they all put back into place?”

“Yeah, but…time’s still stopped in those areas,” Julia says. “And it’s spreading. We don’t know what’s going on. Did you figure something out?”

Lup nods. “In the morning,” she says, “so we can tell everybody. It’s…a lot.”

“That’s worrying,” Julia says, “but…sure. Me and Maggie are the only two Pokémon awake, so. You shouldn’t be bothered going back to your room.”

“Thanks,” Barry says, as they reach the bottom floor. The four of them split off—Lup and Barry to their room, Julia and Magnus back to sentry duty. Lup emerges into her room, and breathes deeply. Their nests are still there, though Kravitz’s has been removed, and…good. Lup doesn’t want to think about him.

Funny that she’s been betrayed by him twice, even if she doesn’t remember the first time. And by funny, she means not-funny, horrible. She scowls.

“Lup,” Barry says, touching a hand to her head, and she sighs, shaking off her Kravitz-thoughts. He doesn’t deserve any of her mental attention. She heads for her nest, and collapses in its familiar soft straw, curling up with her nose tucked under her tails. It’s how she used to sleep, all in a ball.

But…

Barry’s nest is just next to hers, and last night, they slept curled up _together,_ more on accident than on purpose, but it was comfortable and warm and she liked it.

“Hey, Barry?” she asks, and he looks over at her from his own nest. “Um.” She doesn’t really know how to explain it in words, so she doesn’t. She stands up, moves over to his nest, and nestles down in it, her ears flicking with anxiety.

Barry understands. He settles down next to her, and she rests her head against his and closes her eyes and feels him breathing beside her, and that’s good.

She’s woken up next morning by Julia’s yelling, which, wow, she didn’t miss. The two of them shake wooziness off like rainwater, and brace themselves for what is sure to be a long morning meeting. Did Magnus and Julia even tell the rest of the guild that they’re back? Lup’s not sure which answer would be worse.

They’re swarmed, the second they get out into the main room of the guild, bombarded on either side by question after question. Lup waves them all off, yells that she’ll explain everything once Davenport joins them, and when he does, looks down at them with surprise, she and Barry both go to the front of the crowd.

“So,” Lup starts, “hey, again. You remember Kravitz? So, turns out he’s evil. And remember Vulpix? The one stealing the time gears? Yeah, he’s the good guy, actually.”

She and Barry trade off telling the story, starting from when Kravitz stunned the two of them and dragged them back to the future, and ending with when they and Taako went to take Treeshroud Forest’s time gear. Lup leaves some things out—the fact that she used to be a human, mainly. It doesn’t matter, really, to understand the story. If she was a human turned Pokémon or just a Vulpix from the start, she lost her memory either way. And also…she doesn’t feel like it’s her place to tell these Pokémon about Taako, and hers, though she doesn’t remember it, backstory. It sounds…shitty. Better to let them assume that she and Taako were simply born of the same parents.

“So, now Taako’s out to gather the time gears, while me and Barry have to look for the Hidden Land,” Lup finishes.

“So…Vulpix, or, Taako…he was good?” Magnus asks. “I just…he stole time gears, and that stopped time!”

“When the time gears are put in place at Temporal Tower, time will be restored,” Barry says. “I know it sounds hard to believe, but think about it. Even now, that the time gears have been put back, time in those places is still frozen. And now the freezing of time is spreading! That doesn’t make sense if you believe what Kravitz said, but when you think about what Taako said, that Temporal Tower is collapsing…then it makes a lot more sense.”

“And the future, time was frozen,” Lup says, “the entire planet was paralyzed. There’s no getting around that. We were there for three days, and not once did the sun rise. I never felt wind in my fur, or saw it blowing the trees.”

“And even if you don’t trust Taako, which is fair,” Barry adds, “we met Celebi, Kravitz’s mom, and she confirmed what Taako said. The two were friends.”

“Celebi?” Davenport asks. “I haven’t ever met her. But…you saw Dialga?”

“Yeah, she was about as big as you, and roared a lot,” Lup says. “Taako said she was governed by self-preservation. She won’t exist if Temporal Tower never falls, so she wants to prevent history from changing.”

“That…makes sense,” Davenport says. “I’ve never met Dialga, either, but if a Legendary Pokémon’s very domain collapses…they will, too.”

“Then you believe us?” Lup asks, and he nods.

“I do, yes.”

“And the rest of you?” Lup asks, looking out to the rest of the guild.

“I think I do,” Julia says, and the rest of the guild adds their ascent—some more than others, but still. Lup can’t fault anyone for being suspicious, not when she herself was, too. “And anyways, trying won’t make anything worse. What’s this about the Hidden Land, though? It sounds…awfully vague.”

“That’s where Temporal Tower is,” Barry says. “We have a week to find it.”

“In that case,” Davenport says, “the first order of business, we need to send a team to Uxie, and explain to him about Taako, so he can then use telepathy to tell both Mesprit and Azelf not to fight Taako, when he comes to get their time gears. Barry, Lup, do either of you know which time gear Taako will head for first?”

“We separated at Treeshroud Forest,” Barry says, “so, whichever is closest, I’d assume.”

“That would be Crystal Lake,” Davenport says. “A team will head there, too, as Fogbound Lake is further away. Lucretia, you can look through the guild’s records for any information on the Hidden Land, and I’ll help you. Barry, Lup, you two will join us, as well. For everyone else, spread what we’ve learned here. We don’t want anybody capturing Taako, because they believe he is still the villain. Good luck, everyone.”

And with that, the guild disperses to fulfill their various roles.

It takes five days before they find anything on the Hidden Land, buried deep in old guild records, and Lup and Barry gather with Lucretia as she reads it.

“To get to the Hidden Land,” she starts, “one must not only cross the ocean, but they also must possess certain qualities, as well as hold proof of their qualification. While the qualities are unknown, the proof is a physical item, inscribed with an intricate pattern. If one holds these two things, they are worthy to find the Hidden Land.” Lucretia frowns as she finishes. “An intricate pattern…that’s not the most helpful. I wonder if they drew it?”

She turns the page, and on the page is a drawing of a pattern. A circle in the center with swirling lines like a compass, what seems to be wings connecting it all…

“That’s my Relic Fragment!” Barry says, as he pulls it out of his cape and sets it down next to the book. The patterns match. “Is this the key to the Hidden Land?”

“It would seem that way…” Lucretia says, “this pattern…I’ve also seen it before. On an expedition me and Davenport went on years ago.”

“Where was it?” Lup asks.

“It was to a cave, called Brine Cave, and inscribed on the wall was this pattern.” She taps her tail against the ground. “I’m going to go find him. That might be a good place to start looking, but it’s far away. We should probably bring Taako, with the time gears.”

“You think he’s got all five?” Barry asks.

“He might,” Lup says, “we’ve almost hit the week deadline. Maybe he’s on the beach?”

The two of them run off to check, while Lucretia goes to find Davenport. Sure enough, when they, or, Lup, since Barry’s floating, set paw onto sand, there’s Taako. Sitting at the edge of the ocean, staring out at the clouds illuminated orange by the sun.

“Taako!” Lup calls, as she runs down the sand towards him. “You’re back; did you get all the time gears?”

Taako’s ears prick when she calls his name, and he leaps to his paws, bounding over to meet her in the middle. He’s grinning wide, and he nuzzles her briefly when he reaches her.

“I did, Lup!” he says, hopping back a few steps and lifting up his necklace with a paw. It’s got five time gears on it, and when he drops it, they clack against each other. “What about the Hidden Land? Did you and Barry figure that out? We only have, like, a day or two until I’m saying we’re fucked, so you’d better.”

“We think so,” Barry says, floating over to join them. “It involves my Relic Fragment. That’s the key?”

“Good job solving that mystery, then,” Taako says, “hopefully we make it in time.”

“We will,” Lup tells him. “We’ll save the world, and prevent the planet’s paralysis. I refuse to live in a world where the sun never rises!”

“Hell yeah, Lup!” Taako adds. “That confidence! You’re…you’re really something.” He smiles at her, and bumps up against her when he passes her to head back over to the ocean. “So, when are we going?”

“Right now,” says Davenport, and Lup looks up to see him, casting a shadow over the three of them as he hovers above them. He soars down to the ocean, and lands in the water. Lup snorts, running over to climb onto his back. Barry floats after her.

Taako, though, stares up, wide-eyed and flat-eared, at Davenport.

“That’s Lugia,” he says.

“Aren’t you like, best friends with Celebi?” Lup counters, stopping to cuff Taako around the ear. That jolts him out of whatever fear he fell into, and he instead glares at her, but there’s nothing mean in it. Lup’s not even sure why she did that.

“I mean, yeah, but she’s not…” Taako shakes himself. “I’m just not going to question this. Where are we going?”

“Brine Cave,” Davenport says, as Lup and Taako join Barry on Davenport’s back. “That’s where me and Lucretia saw the same pattern that is connected to the Hidden Land. It’s likely that the two are connected, somehow, Barry’s…rock?”

“I call it the Relic Fragment,” Barry says.

“Barry’s Relic Fragment,” Davenport corrects, “and the pattern on Brine Cave.”

“Will you be coming with us?” Lup asks.

“No. I don’t want to encroach on Dialga’s domain, and enrage her further. If Temporal Tower is already collapsing, she can’t be in a good mental state.”

“She won’t be,” Taako says. “I don’t know that she’ll be the same Primal Dialga she is in the future, but she’ll be at least partially corrupted.”

“Sounds like she’ll be fun to deal with,” Lup mutters, resting her head on her paws. Barry settles down next to her, while Taako alternates his time pacing, and sitting beside her.

The flight to Brine Cave takes an hour, and Davenport lands on an outcropping of rock, a cave just beyond him.

“I’ll return in about an hour,” he says, “so, if this isn’t right, I can take you back. Otherwise…this is it, I assume. Good luck.”

“Thank you,” Barry says, as he floats down off of Davenport. Lup hops off, lands hard on the stone, and Taako does the smarter thing and just slides down his wing. “Next time we see you, hopefully it’s to a saved world.”

“I hope that too,” Davenport says, before he takes wing, and disappears into the sky.

Brine Cave isn’t that big, and it takes only a few minutes after entering to make it to the end of the cave. The rocky ground slopes down to meet the ocean, where it enters the cave and laps at their paws, and on the opposite wall, there, carved carefully into it, is the same pattern as on Barry’s Relic Fragment.

He takes it out, placing it down on the stone. For a second, nothing happens, but then, the pattern on the Relic Fragment starts to glow blue, followed next by the pattern on the wall, both of them pulsing in sync, and then there’s a bright light, and a beam of blue is shot out from the pattern on the wall, and out over the ocean opposite it.

“What…was that?” Barry asks, looking from the wall to his Relic Fragment to the ocean. The glow fades, until it’s like it never happened to begin with. “Was that it?”

“No,” Taako says, and he points out into the ocean. “Look. There’s a shape.”

Lup squints, and sure enough, on the horizon but growing ever closer, there’s a Pokémon. But the closer it gets, the less sense it makes. It’s no Pokémon she’s ever seen. It’s…a big jellyfish? It swims into their cave, and its tentacles coil up in front of it, as if its waiting.

Its body is black, but it’s also not, because inside of this jellyfish is a swirling mass of lights like thousands of stars and galaxies.

The jellyfish hums, something like a greeting.

“Uh…hi,” Taako says. “Are you here to take us to the Hidden Land?”

The jellyfish nods.

“I guess…” Taako steps onto the head of the jellyfish, and it hums out an affirmative, before pointing with a tentacle to Barry and Lup.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Lup says, hopping up onto the jellyfish, followed by Barry, who settles down fully onto the jellyfish, rather than just floating over it.

The jellyfish hums once more, before it turns and begins swimming out of the cave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is brought to you by me trying to make the dimensional scream make sense. in the game, grovyle (who's part taako's playing) explains pretty much the same thing, that it's set off by triggers with time gears, but the! the partner is like 'well it worked in places w/out time gears' and it's established that is just works differently in the past and it's like. really??? really???? why would you do that????
> 
> anyways. we're approaching the end....one more real chapter, and then an epilogue, and then this story is done! woohoo! as it turns out, finishing stories before you start posting them is the best way to actually, like, make sure they're completed and not just forever left incomplete. 
> 
> next chapter coming in a week, but like, for real this tine.


	8. The Last Adventure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lup, Barry, and Taako make their way to Temporal Tower, and ready themselves to bring time back to the world.

The jellyfish swims for what feels like hours, as Lup lays back on its head, staring up at the cloudless sky. Hours of ocean, of sky, of blue and nothing else.

“So,” Lup says, “we’ll be here a while. Taako, anything you want to tell us about Temporal Tower?”

“I don’t know that much about it,” he says. “It’ll be falling, so…hard to climb? I’ve seen it in the future, but it’s long since been destroyed; it’s missing like, the entire upper half.” Taako stretches out, opening his mouth in a yawn. He shakes out his fur and settles back down, where his front paws bump against Lup’s side.

“Wait,” Barry says. “You said you didn’t know where the Hidden Land was. But you’ve seen Temporal Tower before?”

“Yeah, actually,” Lup adds, because huh, that is really weird, “do you just live in the Hidden Land?”

Taako blinks. “I. Shit. I guess we did?” His ears twitch, and he tilts his head. “I never really thought about it…holy fuck, that’s why we could never figure out where the lakes were supposed to be! We were on the wrong fucking continent!”

“Haven’t you been studying these for like, most of your life?” Lup teases, and Taako swats at her, not hard enough to hurt, but it’s still an odd thing for him to do, and she nearly jumps back on instinct. Taako stands, not seeming to even notice he’s done it.

“One, no, only for like, a few years, and two, fuck you, it’s not like you put it together, either.”

“She did, though,” Barry says, resting beside Lup. “Well. I guess I did? But Lup caught on right after me. So, if we’re going in order…”

“I can’t believe this!” Taako yells, a mock-growl working its way into his tone. “I was in the Hidden Land the whole entire time! Why the fuck was it named the Hidden Land if we all just lived there!”

“You spent all this time trying to find Temporal Tower when it was right outside?” Lup asks, bumping her head against Barry. Taako whines, a grating, _pity-me!_ sort of sound.

“In the past!” he says, his ears pressing flat, dropping back down to roll onto his back, tails wagging. “You saw the future! It’s different from here! A lot different!”

Lup snorts, tapping Taako’s nose with her paw. He makes the same whining noise, but rolls over and resettles, so he’s lying down with his paws out in front of him. Lup’s all up to keep teasing him, since Taako doesn’t actually seem to mind, and it’s not like there’s anything better to do, but Barry speaks before her.

“Once we’re there, where do we put the time gears?” Barry asks, probably pitying Taako if he’s changing the subject so abruptly. He does, however, offer Lup a smile that Taako doesn’t catch, and she grins right back.

“There should be a pedestal, or something,” Taako says, rubbing a paw over his ear like he’s trying to smooth his dignity back into place. Lup’s fights back the urge to muss up his fur. “With places for all five of them. Hey, what’s that up there?”

Lup’s first instinct is that it’s some distraction to get their attention off of him, but he points, towards where the jellyfish is heading, and there’s actually something. The air there is different, the waves all twisted up like they’re frozen in a moment, the horizon shimmering like it’s too flimsy to contain itself. The closer they get, the fainter the sounds of swimming get, until they’re going through the weird air, and when Lup looks down, the jellyfish is swimming through air.

“We must be close!” she says, pointing so Barry and Taako can notice. “Are we…flying?”

“They’re still moving like they’re swimming,” Barry says, but he doesn’t sound convinced. “Maybe…”

“The Hidden Land has been hidden since it was heard of,” Taako says, “what if…this is a sea of time, or something? Maybe not literally, but…”

“Like a gap in time?” Barry offers, and Taako nods.

“Yeah! Something like…”

He falls quiet as the Hidden Land comes into view.

It’s surrounded by dark clouds that spark with lighting, the land itself a mountainous sky-island with grassy valleys nestled between high peaks. Floating just above it, connected by a pathway of hovering rock, is a silvery tower, with the fiercest storms lashing around the top of it. The tower is spiderwebbed with cracks, and even from this distance, Lup can tell that its shuddering.

The jellyfish dives towards the Hidden Land, and stops at the edge of it, so the three can hop off. They do, and the grass is soft under Lup’s paws. There are a few flowers dotted about, orange and purple blossoms. When she looks ahead, the path seems to lead between two mountains.

“Where do we go?” Barry asks the jellyfish. Lup gets a series of three images in her mind: some sort of room with carvings of Pokémon on the walls, a larger version of the pattern on Barry’s Relic Fragment, but in a soft blue and carved into the ground, and that same thing, but out of the ground, and soaring towards the falling Temporal Tower.

“It looked like…we have to find some ruins,” Taako says. “I guess we just go through here.” He tosses his head the direction of the path between the mountains. “Thanks, jellyfish.”

It hums, and settles down at the edge of the Hidden Land.

The three of them head down the path. It’s quiet, as they try to find what the jellyfish showed them. It’s just one straight path, so it isn’t hard to follow. They’re bordered on either side by mountains, and the wildflowers on both sides are pretty and sweet-smelling. Taako stares at them, but shakes off whatever funk it is before Lup can ask if he’s okay.

It’s an easy walk, all things considered. The ground is soft underpaw, and if she ignores the roiling storm at the distant shape of Temporal Tower, rather peaceful. They don’t talk, much—Lup keeps close to Barry, following Taako, who leads the way like it’s second nature. Though, considering he technically lived here, even if it was this place’s future…that would make sense.

The path narrows some as they approach—the mountain to their left draws closer, a wall of mossy rock at their side. Looking up at it, Lup’s pretty sure she could climb it if she so chooses, but she’s not into climbing up walls, and Taako seems fine to just keep going forwards.

Well. He was. And then Taako goes shock-still, his tails poofing out.

“Taako…?” Lup asks, wary. “Everything good?”

“Yes,” he says, but there’s something almost awed to his voice, “I just…” He tilts his head back to stare up at the wall to their left, and Lup sees what he does—a cave, sunk into the rocks, not the easiest climb, but doable. “Barry, you can float, right? Can you, uh, go see if there’s any carvings in there?”

“Do you know this cave?” Barry asks, but he floats up towards it, peering in. He’s a bit too far away for Lup’s comfort, so she scrambles up one of the rocks, her claws finding purchase in the slippery moss and scratching lines into stone as she goes.

“Pretty sure,” Taako says, and he leaps onto the rocks, balancing beside Lup. His tails are splayed out, and his ears are set with his concentration. “Should be…” he trails off, crouches, wobbling a bit on his thin ledge, and leaps up, his claws catching on the edge of the cave, and hauling himself up. Lup, stuck much further down, snarls her annoyance to herself, and tries to copy whatever it was Taako just did.

“Do you need help?” Barry asks, looking back down at her. Lup shakes her head.

“I’m fine,” she says, and nearly topples off the rock she’s perched on. “What’s up there? Is it what you thought it was?” The final part, she directs at Taako.

“Yes,” he says, “yes! Shit, Lup, thought we’d never see this place again! It has a name but fuck if I remember it. This is where you first told me about the time gears.” He bounds back to peer over the small outcrop of the cave, his eyes light. “Are you sure you don’t need help?” He lays down, paws dangling over the edge. “You can try to grab my paws, or something.”

“Wouldn’t that hurt?” Lup asks, trying to plot out a path. Taako twitches an ear.

“Eh. What’s pain between siblings?” He beckons for her. “Barry can float, if you fall he can just catch you, right?”

“I’m his size,” Lup points out, but it’s not like she has a better plan, so she crouches and leaps for Taako, managing to dig her claws into his leg. He yelps, but grabs her scruff and drags her the rest of the way up. She falls onto the stone, and Barry hovers over to her side.

“Sorry,” Lup says, pushing herself to her feet. Taako bumps against her, which hopefully means he’s okay and not holding this against her. Once up, she peers at the cave. It’s much too dark for her to see anything inside, but it doesn’t look like it’s anything special. Just an ordinary cave. If human-her and Taako started their time-gear journey here…

“C’mon!” Taako says, trotting past her and plunging into the cave. “There’s cool carvings in here, we have some time before the world ends!”

Lup laughs. “Sure, why not?” she calls, and glances to Barry. Part of her wants to keep pushing on, but also…will she remember anything if she goes into this cave?

“I’ll do it if you want to,” Barry says, so Lup takes that as a sign she should just go in.

Her head starts pounding when she places her first paw inside. The light from Barry’s eye illuminates the room a dusky red, or is that her own vision? It’s blurring and out-of-focus, she can’t see Taako or Barry and there’s a _scream_ —

A scene falls into place. She’s seeing from above, like she always does with these things, the world too far beyond her going hazy. She sees Taako, first, at the back of the cave, his pelt illuminated by some sort of blue light. He’s up on his hind paws, nose pressed to the carvings, lines etched deep into stone. She recognizes them, after a second—three lakes, surrounded by some sort of interlocking symbol that’s similar to the radiance she’s seen around the time gears.

“A time gear,” Taako says, and he drops back to his paws, turning to face…

Lup knows, conceptually, what a human looks like. But this other figure Taako is staring at…it’s tall, much taller than Taako, and it stands on two legs, and it’s got dark skin and long hair and freckles across its nose and cheeks and…

It’s _her._ That’s human-her. But…it’s not her, because Lup herself is watching all of this through a red haze and a pounding headache made background by the figure she’s staring at. When she sees herself in puddles, her snout and her ears and the fuzz of her fur, she’s able to connect that face to her mind, to who she is. But this human…did Lup ever feel like that when she was a human?

She never knows what human-her says. The vision collapses and dies with a shriek, and she’s lying on the floor of the cave, Barry hovering right at her side, and Taako shouting and pawing at her shoulder. She jolts up and away from him, backwards into Barry, seeking—something. Affection, contact, anything to know she’s standing on all four paws and she’s not suddenly the human she saw.

This is her! With her gray eyes and russet fur and six tails! Maybe she was human at one point, maybe she was human way, way longer than she’s ever been a Vulpix, but…

Humans, she knows, can’t conjure up fire from nothing. She feels Barry’s warm embrace and noses deeper into it, her ears pressing flat as she breaths out a tiny flame. She can feel all her fire waiting, something beating just beside her heart—she’s not going back! Not now, not ever!

She’s Lup, and Lup is a Vulpix, and even if she was human once, she’s pretty sure it’s never felt as right at _this._

“Lup!” Taako says, pressing his cold nose to Lup’s side through a gap in Barry’s arms. “You just fell over, what happened?”

“Dimensional Scream,” she mutters, looking up at Barry.

“What do you mean, they’re never that bad,” Taako says, but his voice goes hesitant.

“They’ve pretty much been like this ever since I’ve known her,” Barry says, and he helps Lup up, her leaving heavily against him. “We should get back. We don’t have all the time in the world.”

“Right,” Taako says, “Lup, I—”

“Not your fault,” she says, and they begin the climb down. With Barry at her side, it’s a lot easier, and they start, once again, heading off down the path to find those ruins the jellyfish showed them. The ruins turn out to be pretty close, as it’s only a short walk before the grass is replaced with old, cobbled brick, and they emerge into a room of carvings.

“Wow,” Barry says, as he walks up to one of the carvings—Groudon and Kyorge facing each other in what Lup thinks is battle. Despite the carvings, half of the circular room has fallen, and the other half only shows three carvings in total, on one of them is covered in scratches, like someone tried to rip it out of the rock with only their claws.

Lup goes up to a carving of Mew, pressing her nose to the stone. Whoever made these, they were an expert artist.

Taako lets out a delighted bark. “Lulu! Look!”

Lup steps away from her carving to see what he’s looking at, her pelt prickling at the nickname. She’s about to correct Taako on it, but then she sees the carving, and Taako eagerly pawing at it, and it’s like something clicks into place.

“The Wishgranter,” she whispers, staring at the Pokémon depicted, a small, star-shaped creature, asleep, its faded-yellow ribbons draped over its body like wings. She takes a step closer, stops when she makes it to Barry.

“Jirachi,” Taako says, proud, and his ears prick.

“Who’s that?” Barry asks.

“Old legend,” Taako says, bumping his nose against the head of the carved Pokémon. “If you wake him, he grants you one wish.” He drops back to all fours, glances back to Lup with a little smile. “Guess we didn’t need him after all.”

Lup doesn’t meet his gaze, instead staring down at her paws. There’s a snippet of conversation, a squeaky little _you need a wish more than me!_ but it’s gone before she can focus on it fully.

“Hey,” Taako says, and Lup shakes, rubbing a paw over her face like rubbing off water. “We should get going. I’m sure that…disc thing is nearby.”

“Right,” Lup says. Twice, now, have memories fucked her over today.

They exit the ruins, and climb up a set of stairs, where there, on the top, is the second image the jellyfish showed them. The pattern, but bigger and in blue, set into the top of the stone. There are stairs on three sides, and a black stone tablet at the other. In the middle of the pattern, there’s an indention about the size of Lup’s paw.

“Hm, there’s writing up here,” Taako says, sniffing at the tablet. When Lup joins him, she notices that it has something carved into it, in a language she doesn’t—

Wait.

“That says Rainbow Stoneship,” Lup says, rising a paw and pressing it against the words, words she can _understand_ and that’s never! She just assumed she wasn’t able to read, but she? She can?

“It does?” Barry asks, floating over to her. He squints at the letters. “It just looks like symbols to me.”

“They’re Unown ruins,” Taako says, grinning at Lup. “The two of us studied them.”

“But I can’t read,” Lup says, blinking dumbly at the letters. _This is the Rainbow Stoneship._ She can read that!

“Probably changed a bit from now and the future,” Taako says, and his ears prick. “You want to read it?”

“Yes!” Lup says, sitting back. “Okay, it says ‘this is the Rainbow Stoneship. You chosen to come to this place, put the—um, I don’t know what that word is—in the indention. The Rainbow Stoneship will then bring you to Temporal Tower.’” She finishes, nodding to herself. Taako moves over to the indention in the center, where Barry is still hovering.

“I think it might be talking about my Relic Fragment…” Barry muses, “I’ll just—”

“That’s quite enough of that, now,” says a voice, and Lup snarls.

“Krav,” Taako spits, as Sableye run up the stairs on either side, and surround them. Kravitz himself strolls up from the right, and two Sableye move aside to make room for him. “How’d you get here?” 

How didn't they notice him? Lup should...she should've...was she so distracted by reading she didn't fucking hear Kravitz coming to attack them? She narrows her eyes and brushes against Barry, not entirely sure what to do when they're surrounded by seven Pokémon, but ready to do something. Fire burns comfortingly in her throat, and her claws scrape old stone.

“I just asked Dialga to teleport me here directly,” Kravitz says, waving a paw. “Make things easier.”

“Oh, so you cheated,” Taako snaps, sparking throughout with tiny icicles, but Kravitz just ignores him and continues on.

“I knew you’d come here eventually. I have to say, I wasn’t sure if both you and Lup would be coming, but this helps a lot. Come along,” he finishes, and he walks back down the stairs, the Sableye kicking and prodding the three of them along. Lup tries to bite one, but it just scratches her deep across the nose, and she yelps, baring her teeth in a growl. The Sableye growls back at her, and Barry rests a hand on her back. Lup takes a deep breath, feels the fire inside her, and forces herself to calm. He's right. They'll get out of this. Eventually. 

They emerge into a dead-end clearing, with a Dimensional Hole set up in front of them. The hole wobbles, shot throughout with pale blue, in stack contrast to the black. Taako, at her side, flattens his ears, and crouches.

“If you’ll be so kind as to cooperate, we’ll be going back to the future, now, and then we can be done with this whole thing once and for all.” Kravitz says, moving in front of the Dimensional Hole. His horn charges a sickly yellow-green with an attack, and Lup braces herself. As if they’d go in just like that!

“Unlikely,” Taako hisses low to the two of them. “Okay, the Sableye should run if we take him out…” Kravitz approaches slowly, leisurely, as though he’s already won. “If we all attack him at once…”

Barry and Lup nod. Lup lets fire build in her gut, preparing to attack Kravitz with all she has. He gets closer, closer…

And then the three of them are launching at him. Lup and Taako both pin him down, Lup unleashing fire while Taako does ice, and Barry hovers over him and attacks with shadow.

They take Kravitz by surprise, and because of that, are able to stun him—one of Taako’s beams of ice freezes Kravitz, and when that happens, Lup stops attacking. Fire is great, but Kravitz being frozen in ice is even better, and they really need the advantage.

“No…” Kravitz mutters, words slurred, “you can’t have…” His paws struggle weakly against the ground as he fails to push himself up. 

“And do you also want to fight us?” Taako yells, spinning on the Sableye. He summons a blizzard, that buffets at the Sableye and Kravitz, though Kravitz doesn’t do anything but groan. When the blizzard dies down, the Sableye have fled, leaving the three of them, and an injured Kravitz.

“We…did it,” Lup says, and she jumps, throwing herself at Barry to tackle him into a hug. “We did it!”

“Hell yeah!” Taako calls, joining in.

“Let me up?” Barry asks, but he’s grinning, and Lup bounds off of him, back over to Taako, who’s sitting guard by Kravitz.

“Now we just have to get to Temporal Tower!” Lup says, her tails wagging. “And then…”

“Save the world,” Taako finishes. “Barry. Can you go ahead and make sure the Rainbow Stoneship works? Me and Lup can stay here to make sure Kravitz doesn’t try anything.”

“Sure,” he says, and Lup runs up to bump her nose against his skull before letting him float back up the stairs. Her tails wags as she sits on Kravitz’s other side, looking at Taako with a grin.

Kravitz groans, again, and Lup turns to him, ready to attack if he tries anything, but he just struggles to raise his head.

“Taako…Lup…” he says, “are you…are you really going to do this?”

“No, because we’d both rather let the world get paralyzed,” Lup says, rolling her eyes. “Of course we’re doing this!”

“If you change history, then you change the future!” Kravitz says, fierce despite the pain in his voice. “Our future, it will cease to exist! All the Pokémon in the future: me, you, Taako, my moms…the second you change the future, all of us will also cease to exist!”

“What?!” Lup says, her fur puffing in surprise. She looks to Taako, expecting to see the same wide-eyed shock, but his eyes are narrowed and set in determination. “Taako?” This is a lie, isn’t it? Kravitz trying to trick them into letting him go?

“When we came to the past,” Taako says, his ears drooping, “we both knew that changing the future would mean sacrificing ourselves. We accepted that. What’s the alternative? We let the world stay frozen? All of us, Lup, not just me and you, but even Istus, we all knew that saving the future would mean we’d be gone.”

Taako shakes himself, lifting his head tall. “I don’t have anything for me in the future,” he says, “and I don’t have anything for me in the past. If all I do with my life is bring peace to the world…then I’m okay with disappearing.”

Lup stares at her paws. To save the world, prevent the planet’s paralysis, make sure everyone can see the sunrise again…she has to die? She has to fade away? She has to leave Barry alone?

She looks to Taako.

“Lup,” he says, “you had accepted this when we first came back. But it would be unfair to hold you to that same promise. Sure, when we first came back, we had nothing but each other, and we’d just go at the same time, but now…you have Barry. If…if you don’t want to do this, okay. I’ll…we’ll figure something out.”

But Lup’s seen the future. She’s seen how bleak it is. She can’t let the world get to that. And if that means she has to die…then…

She swallows. “Okay,” she says, “I understand. I’m…I’m going to still save the world. I’m going to stop the planet’s paralysis. And...” she turns to Taako, and walks over to him, sitting next to him and pressing herself into his side. His fur is a cool contrast to her own, a perfect fit. “I know I’m not the same Lup who came back with you,” she says, “but when we go…I’ll be the Lup to go with you.”

When she disappears, ceases to exist, she’s going to leave Barry, and that pains her so, so much. Barry is her best friend, the Pokémon she cares the most about. And he deserves to live in a world free of darkness. A world where time is right, and he can always watch the sunrise.

To refuse to save the world would be to let the world fall into darkness. And she doesn’t want to live in a frozen, paralyzed world.

Her ears prick when she hears a hum, and she and Taako both stand, Taako going towards the hum to investigate, when it’s joined by a soft blue glow, coming from the direction of the Rainbow Stoneship.

“Barry must’ve gotten it to work,” Taako says, still watching the light. “Here, we should—”

His voice is cut off when Lup is thrown backwards by a horn lashing into her belly, and she lands with a harsh ringing in her ears. When her vision stops swimming, she sees Kravitz, crouched to lunge at her again.

“I won’t let you change history!” he snarls, and his horn glows as he charges up an attack. Lup can’t find the strength in her to move. She won't...she can't... “I won’t let you kill us all!”

“LUP!” Taako screams, and there’s a bright flash of light, and when it clears, Lup is unharmed. She struggles to her paws, and sees Taako, collapsed in front of her, his pelt sparking with flecks of ice that fall and melt once they touch the ground.

“Shielding your sister, huh?” Kravitz asks, shaking himself. “Well, that just makes you weaker, and I don’t have much of a preference who I take down first.”

Taako growls, and before Kravitz can do anything, Taako pushes himself to his paws, and jumps for him, sending the two of them rolling backwards towards the Dimensional Portal, until Taako has Kravitz pinned down, icicles floating in the air around them, pointed at Kravitz’s throat.

“No,” he snarls, “I’m taking you with me.” He turns to face Lup, slicing his time gear necklace in two with a claw, and grabs it, throwing it her direction. The time gears clatter to the ground, and Lup can't bring herself to care about them. 

“Taako?” Lup asks, getting to her paws as she tries to run for him, but she's still in pain, and she just wobbles and struggles to find her balance. 

“It’s up to you, Lup,” Taako says, and he digs his claws a little deeper into Kravitz. His ears are shoved forwards, his teeth bared in a grin, the ice around him glinting with reflected light. 

“No,” says Kravitz, struggling, but despite Taako’s smaller statue, it does nothing. “You can’t—”

“Rainbow Stoneship works great, team!” Barry calls, floating down the stairs, but he stops in horror once he gets to the bottom. “Wha—what’s happening? Taako?”

“This is it for me,” Taako says, “I won’t ever be able to come back here again.”

Kravitz struggles, and Taako snarls, the icicles floating around him brandishing like swords. “Barry,” he says, “you keep her safe. I’m…I wish I was able to take you up on that offer, Lup. To get to know you again. But you won’t be alone. Because you and Barry…well.” He smiles at them, face softening. "You're the greatest of combinations.”

“Taako!” Lup yells, as the humming of the Rainbow Stoneship gets louder, its glow brighter, illuminating Taako’s fur a brilliant blue. 

“Lup,” Taako says, as he shoves Kravitz for the Dimensional Hole. “I love you. I was lucky to have you as a sister.”

And with that, he gives one final shove, and both he and Kravitz disappear into the Dimensional Hole. Lup runs for it, but before she can get there, it wobbles, and collapses in on itself, and then is gone. 

“Taako…?” Barry says, his eye wide. “Lup, what…?”

“He…saved me,” Lup says, “he’s…he sacrificed himself so we could get to Temporal Tower…” She glances back to the Rainbow Stoneship, its glow almost unbearable. “We should…”

“Time gears,” Barry agrees. The two of them pick up the time gears, most of them still on the necklace. Lup slides the one that fell back on, and Barry ties it around her neck. They’re heavy, but not so much so that she can’t walk, and the two of them trudge up the stairs and to the Rainbow Stoneship.

There’s a rim of blue light like fire around it, and Lup steps through, onto the Rainbow Stoneship. Barry floats next to her, and settles down on the stone.

“We’ll do this for Taako,” he says, softly.

“I wanted to…know him again,” she says, “but…”

She sighs, resting her head against Barry, and the Rainbow Stoneship rumbles as it takes off, lifting out of the stone and into the air. The pattern inscribed on it glows, not blue, but cycles through the colors of the rainbow. When it starts moving, it leaves a rainbow behind it, and it moves through the dusky yellow shy, past bits of floating rock. Beautiful, maybe. Taako was supposed to be up here with them. 

They’re approaching Temporal Tower, and the clouds above it are an angry red, the cracks even bigger. Lup watches as large chucks of the tower crumble and collapse into the ether.

This is her last adventure with Barry. No matter what happens—if they lose and die, if they win—she won’t see tomorrow ever again.

Lup swallows back her tears. If she tells Barry this…what is he going to do with that knowledge weighing over him? He’ll just…be sad. And she doesn’t want her last hours with Barry to be any sadder than they already will be.

They’re going to save the world. And she’s going to die in the process.

Lup curls tighter against Barry, and watches as Temporal Tower draws ever-closer. The Rainbow Stoneship comes to a stop, at a bridge of floating rock that leads up to Temporal Tower. They hop off the Rainbow Stoneship, and climb their way up the rocks, until they’re at the base of the tower, and staring up at it.

From this close, it’s a silvery blue, with streaks of red that pulse like a heartbeat. The ground shakes, underneath them, and Lup almost loses her balance, but she catches herself against Barry.

“It really is falling…” Barry says, as the tremor dies down. “Dialga must be at the top. We should get going.”

“Yeah,” Lup says, and they enter the tower, together.

Lup has no way of knowing how tall it is, but every pawstep she takes is one closer to the top, one closer to Dialga, and one closer to reestablishing time. The time gears that hang around her neck brush against her fur, and help steady Lup’s resolve. Taako gave up everything to get them this far. He lost his life, he lost his sister…and he still tried to save the world. If Lup gives up, then she’d be making sure her brother’s sacrifice was for nothing.

Every so often, there’s a tremor so powerful they have to stop and wait for it to die down, and can do nothing but hope the tower won’t fall apart under her paws. Lup can see the sky through the cracks, thick with clouds and getting redder and angrier the further they climb. She sees the occasional bolt of lightning, followed by a roar of thunder, and she just has to keep moving.

They make it to the top of the tower with little fanfare. Lup knows they’re at the top, because she looks up and sees nothing but a swirling storm of dark clouds, hissing with their heavy lightning, the wind tugging so hard at her fur it's a fight just to stay standing. The ground below is cracked throughout and littered with toppled columns. In front of them, at the opposite end of the tower, are stairs, that go up to a platform. The platform is bordered by something like a curtain, dark blue with pulsing red lines that streak through it. In the middle of the structure there's a cracked stone circle, around which are slots for the five time gears.

“There,” Lup breathes, and she takes a step towards it.

But then there’s a bolt of lighting, that strikes down right in front of them, and she and Barry are sent flying backwards, rolling to a stop near the edge of the tower. The world goes dark, like someone blew out the sun, and as Lup stumbles to her paws, she hears a hissing growl.

“SO,” the voice says, “IT IS YOU WHO SEEKS TO DESTROY TEMPORAL TOWER.”

“No!” Barry says, shaking his head, his eye glowing with a fierce determination. “We have come to fix Temporal Tower, we brought the time—”

“SILENCE,” the voice roars, and with a flash, standing before them is Dialga, towering over them, and pulsing an angry red. “YOU DARE BRING RUIN TO THIS TOWER?”

“We don’t!” Lup tries, but she’s cut off by a loud roar as Dialga advances on them.

“I SHOW NO MERCY TO THOSE WHO COME TO DESTROY THIS PLACE,” Dialga says.

“It’s no use,” Barry tells her, “she’s not listening, we’ll have to…fight her? Can we even do that?”

Lup nods, and the time gears around her neck rattle an affirmative. “We can’t let time collapse,” she says, “if she’s talking like this, she can’t yet be Primal Dialga, so we have a chance. We can’t beat her, but…we have to get the time gears into place. Maybe then…”

“That should fix the tower,” Barry agrees. “Okay, Lup.”

The two of them strike first, Lup launching fire and Barry throwing a ball of shadows. Both attacks hit, but Dialga barely even flinches. She lifts her head and roars, and Lup’s on the ground before she can even tell what she’s been hit by. She wobbles to her paws, stumbling off to the side. She has to get to the pedestal. If she can’t beat Dialga, she’ll have to outlast her.

She manages about five steps before she’s attacked again, the same attack—she’s on the ground and half-dead in a flash. But that means she’s five steps closer to the pedestal, and Dialga isn’t in front of it anymore, but moving toward Barry.

He’s drawing her away! Lup wants to yowl her thanks to the world, wants to charge in and shove Barry to safety, but she can’t draw attention to herself. It’s lucky that Dialga seems to be in a rage, and not paying her any mind. That doesn’t mean Lup isn’t hit—whatever attack Dialga can do that makes Lup down before she knows what’s happening, she can’t avoid it. But slowly and surely, she makes her way to the pedestal.

She’s two stairs up when the entire tower starts shaking, and lighting flashes from above, striking the floor. Lup’s thrown down the stairs, and she hits her head hard against the floor.

The tremor doesn’t stop, and everything is shaking so much Lup can barely figure out how to place her paws. So, she forgets standing, and instead drags herself, digging her claws into the cracks to yank herself to the stairs.

“YOU DARE TO HASTEN THE COLLAPSE!” Dialga screams, and Lup doesn’t look back. Barry has to be okay. If he doesn’t get out of this alive…

Well, then they’ll be dead together. But Lup wants Barry to live, and that gives her the last bit of strength she needs to drag herself to the stairs. The shaken has lessened, some, and she’s able to pull herself to the top.

She pulls the necklace off, ripping it into two, and, despite the wobbling, manages to push the first of the five time gears in. She keeps the other four safe by hiding them under her tail, and then she’s got two, and then three, and then Barry screams. It’s a horrible, pained sound.

“Barry!” Lup yells, spinning around before she’s even aware of what she’s doing, and she sees Barry, collapsed in a heap on the ground. He’s barely moving, but he’s alive, and she can’t help the sob of relief that wells up inside of her.

Dialga, though. While she leaves Barry, she turns to Lup.

“YOU,” Dialga says. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

“I’m saving your stupid tower,” Lup says, gesturing to the three time gears already in place behind her. “And you’re making that really hard.”

“AM I?” Dialga asks, and in a flash, Lup is on the ground, biting back her yelp of pain. Dialga towers over her, and Lup realizes—she isn’t on the pedestal anymore. She’s back where she started, near the opposite edge of the tower, but the time gears—the time gears aren’t with her.

“Your tower is falling!” Lup yells. “The ground is shaking! Do you think killing me is going to prevent that?”

Out of the corner of her eye, she watches Barry get up. He’s unsteady, he’s not floating straight, but he’s alive. He’s alive, and Lup can repay the favor, can take all of Dialga’s attacks to keep him safe. She bares her teeth in a grin, her ears pricking up, and notices that Barry is heading for the pedestal. Hopefully, the time gears are still there.

“I THINK YOU ARE TRYING TO PUT AN END TO ME,” Dialga says, and she rakes her claws across Lup. Lup whimpers, but curls in on herself and takes it. For Barry, for Taako, for _Barry…_ “AND I KNOW THAT I HAVE NO DESIRE TO DIE.”

“You want to live in a planet that is frozen?” Lup asks. “Where there is no time?”

“I WANT TO LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE I LIVE.” The next claw strike, Lup manages to avoid, rolling out of the way just in time, and she pushes herself to her paws, staring up at Dialga.

She’s maybe the size of this Pokémon’s eye.

“And if everyone else suffers?” Lup asks. She calls forth her fire, and it simmers in the air around her.

“I WILL BE ALIVE,” Dialga says, “I CARE NOT THE CONDITIONS OF OTHERS.”

And then there’s a soft blue glow from behind Dialga, and the giant turns around, and Lup is able to move out of her way.

Barry is at the pedestal, all five time gears in place. The backing behind it, that used to glow red, now glows the same green-blue of the time gears.

“Barry,” Lup says, and she manages to get to her paws, stumbling his direction, but she only makes it a few feet before Temporal Tower starts to shake, and it’s the worst tremor she’s felt yet. She’s thrown forwards, the only good part of things, and Barry floats down to her.

“We put the time gears in!” Barry says, as the two of them huddle against the violent heaving of the tower. Lightning crashes down, breaking off entire chunks of tower. “Were we too late?”

Lup grabs Barry, and he grabs her, as the world falls apart around them. Everything is loud, and shaking, and the world flashes purple and red, and then everything goes white.

When the light fades, Lup’s pressed into Barry, and Temporal Tower is broken all around them. But the sky is a dusky yellow, and the world is still once again.

“Ugh…” Barry mutters, and Lup takes a step back to let him get up. “Where’s…what’s…” He shakes himself. “Is it…did we win?”

“YOU HAVE,” says Dialga, and Lup isn’t able to spins around, so instead she just limps, Barry helping her, until both of them are facing Dialga. Except…she’s different. She’s a brighter blue, no longer streaked through with red, but a color closer to that of the time gears. The gem at her chest isn’t red, but blue. “WELCOME TO TEMPORAL TOWER.”

“You’re…not attacking us?” Lup asks.

“I AM NOT,” Dialga says, lowering her head. “I MUST APOLOGIZE. I HAD LOST MY REASON. BUT NOW…TEMPORAL TOWER, AS YOU CAN SEE, HAS SUFFERED GREATLY. BUT IT HAS STOOD. AND THUS, SO HAS TIME.”

The gem on her chest flashes blue, and then a series of scenes flash across Lup’s mind. Treeshroud Forest, but it is green, and the trees are blowing in the wind, no longer frozen. Treasure Town, lit by the colors of dusk, everyone happy. The Hidden Land and Temporal Tower, both cracked and shattered, but despite that, still together, no longer surrounded by storm.

“YOU TWO PREVENTED TEMPORAL TOWER FROM FALLING,” Dialga says, once the last vision has passed. “IN DOING SO, YOU HAVE PREVENTED THE PLANET’S PARALYSIS. FOR THAT, I MUST THANK YOU.”

“We did it,” Barry says, disbelieving, “Lup, we did it!”

“We did!” Lup answers, rubbing her face against his. “We saved the world…”

“I MUST REMAIN AND FIX TEMPORAL TOWER,” Dialga says, “BUT YOU TWO HAVE DONE A GREAT DEED, AND I WILL NOT FORGET IT.”

Lup takes shaky steps towards the stairs back down the tower.

“C’mon, Lup,” Barry says, floating beside her so she can lean on him. “Let’s go home.”

* * *

Lup makes it to the rocky bridge, maybe halfway to the Rainbow Stoneship, when her body feels like it’s being weighed down by lead, and she has to fight for every step.

[This must be her end.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH_Zl2Rgl5M) With the future changed…she won’t be around for much longer.

“Lup,” Barry asks, when she stops, “what’s wrong? Do you need to rest?” He hovers around in front of her, and Lup looks up at him and tries to drink in every last inch of him, remember everything she can about this moment. She lost memories of her brother, and she isn’t going to lose them of Barry, too.

She tries to take another step, but it’s too much for her, so she just sits down, takes a shuddering breath. She’s…okay. She saved the world. She accomplished what she was sent back in time to do.

“Lup??” Barry asks, frantic, eye wide, and Lup looks down to see what’s got him so freaked out, when she sees that, oh. There are a few orbs of light coming off of her, and she feels little bit like her entire body is falling asleep, like she’s unattached from it.

“Barry,” Lup starts, “I didn’t tell you this because I didn’t want our last adventure to just be sad.”

“Last?” Barry asks, rushing to her. “Lup, what are you talking about? You’re going to be fine! We’re going home, remember? C’mon, let’s get to the Rainbow Stoneship, you can’t…”

“When you were making sure the Rainbow Stoneship worked,” she says, and she pushes his desperate arms gently away with her nose, “Kravitz said…and Taako confirmed…that when we changed the future by preventing the planet’s paralysis, all the Pokémon from the future would cease to exist.”

“What?” Barry says. “No, Lup you can’t—” He jumps when the yellow orbs of light coming off of her increase, and Lup loses even more feeling in her limbs. She uses what little strength she has to stumble forwards into Barry, and almost on instinct, he wraps her in a hug. “I only made it this far because you were with me, Lup, what am I supposed to do if you’re gone?”

“Live,” Lup says, “tell everyone what happened, and make sure this never happens again. Barry…” she can barely feel him, with how fuzzy her body feels, but she wants this, she wants her last moments to be here. “Thank you,” she says, “for everything, Barry, for…for going on adventures with me, and being there when I needed it, and being…” she shakes, and the light grows brighter.

“Lup,” Barry says, his voice choked with tears, “Lup, please don’t…you can’t…to me, Lup, you’re, you’re more important than anything…I love you, Lup, I…”

“I love you too!” Lup says, and she’s pretty sure she’s crying even though she can’t feel anything anymore. They’re illuminated from behind by the rising sun, and Lup feels a laugh choke up in her throat as the sun breaches the horizon. She waves a paw weakly, and this time, manages a laugh. “Barry, look…!”

“You can’t,” Barry repeats, when he adjusts just enough so he can see the sun, too, and Lup slumps deeper into him. Space as a concept doesn’t exist between the two of them—they’re as close as two Pokémon can physically be. “You can’t, not here, not ever, Lup, just…hold on, you—you said the sunrise brings the new day, I can’t—I can’t see that without you.”

It does, doesn’t it? What was that Taako said? These sunrises she’s seen with Barry…hasn’t every sunrise she’s ever seen been with him? She breaths her heavy, difficult breaths, hardly enough to get any air in her lungs, faintly feels both the warmth and Barry’s touch on her fur.

“I love you,” she repeats, because she doesn’t know what else to say, how to sum everything up. She’s floating, it seems, not literally, but she’s so detached from her body that there’s no way to feel weighed down anymore. “Barry…even when I’m gone…I won’t ever forget you. I refuse to.”

“Lup—” he starts, making a noise like a desperate sob. He grabs for her like somehow that’s going to hold her together.

Lup bumps her nose to Barry’s skull, and she smiles at him, watery-eyed, feeling nothing but the overwhelming joy bubbling up inside her chest.

Despite everything, she got to meet Barry, and that makes this all worth it.

Lup fades away into golden light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bye lup
> 
> another late chapter!!! this chapter was late bc i was like. unsatisfied with the ending and rewrote parts of it several times. still not sure how i feel about it, but i like it mostly and i don't want to put off posting any longer. all we have left is the epilogue, which, being like, 1000 words, will be here on time in a week, guaranteed. 
> 
> the music is don't ever forget off the pmd eos soundtrack, cause really, the fading away scene is incomplete without it. speaking of that scene, the first time i played pmd, i was bawling my eyes out all throughout the credits, thank you for asking. and yes, while writing it, i did listen to 'dont ever forget' on repeat. it was....a time.


	9. An Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _It's hard to say just when I fell in love_  
>  _There was no epiphany, no light from above_  
>  _But you'd become my candle in the dark_  
>  _And all through that hell you were a shield across my heart_  
>  Servants and Kings - Radical Face

Lup died in his arms.

Maybe Barry should be thinking about other things—they saved the world! Or other sacrifices—Taako, going back to the future and taking Kravitz with him. But as he floats back down the rock bridge, slowly, dreading the moment he sees the Rainbow Stoneship, he can’t get the golden light out of his eyes.

It was beautiful, in a horrible way. How she dissolved into light and then floated up into the air and dispersed, despite his attempts to grab the light that was once Lup and put her back together.

Sure, they saved the world, but what’s the fucking point if Lup doesn’t get to live in it with him? That’s how it was supposed to go: three heroes returning from the Hidden Land. Lup, Taako, and then him. He’s not even a hero. He’s only strong because he had Lup, because she made things that would’ve be impossible alone, faceable together.

He has to be strong. He has to tell everyone what happened. He has to make sure her name is never forgotten, but celebrated as a hero. Her and Taako both.

“The Rainbow Stoneship,” Barry mutters, stopping in front of it. What if he just doesn’t? Just stays in the Hidden Land until he wastes away to nothing?

…no. That would mean Lup died in vain.

He floats onto the Rainbow Stoneship, and settles down. It starts moving as soon as he’s on, making its way back to where they started, and Barry watches as Temporal Tower gets smaller and smaller, farther and farther.

There goes Lup. He doesn’t have anything of her but memories. The light took everything about her.

He loved Lup, is the thing. He didn’t know it at first—how could he? Because it wasn’t like he woke up one day and everything was different, it’s like he was facing down the maddened goddess of time and realized that it was Lup who he was doing this for. That he was facing down something thousands of years older than him, and he was doing it to protect her. The world, in that moment, had come second-place.

Or, maybe, when she told him he was her best friend, and he realized, oh, you’re mine. And then things continued from there.

Over adventures and hundreds of little moments, he pieced together a puzzle and that puzzle was that he loved Lup, with his entire heart.

And now, to watch her fade away on his arms, to watch whatever remains of her fade into nothing but a smudge in the distance…

For Lup, he’ll keep going.

And he does. He goes back home, to Treasure Town, and he recounts his story to the guild, the full story. He tells them about Taako, and his brave sacrifice, and he tells them about Lup, and how she was amazing, how she saved the world and yeah, he was maybe there too, but it is Lup who did all of this knowing that she was going to die the second the world was saved.

Barry isn’t sure he would be able to do that.

He tells the town, he travels the world and tells everybody who might listen about how the world was saved, and he sits in the cave on Sharpedo Bluff and watches the sunrise like Lup always loved, and he spends nights walking on the beach and trying to find the strength to tear himself away.

And he does this for months. Months, of falling into a routine that is meaningless without Lup, of doing guild tasks and jobs for Pokémon because it’s what is expected of him, because he doesn’t know what to do with his life.

What did life look like before Lup? He can’t remember. And he knows what life is like after Lup: the same thing repeating, and none of it matters.

He wants life with Lup. He wants to go back, because yes, the world was ending, but they were facing it together, and that made it all worth it. Barry would brave every frozen future, face down as many immortal goddesses as he needed to. It would all be worth it if he had Lup with him.

Six months after her death, he goes to the beach.

“Oh! Barry, hi!” Magnus says, walking back up to the guild as Barry makes his way down. “What’s up?”

“Just going to the beach,” Barry says. He doesn’t stick around to see the worry on Magnus’s face. That, too, is normal. He knows Pokémon are worried about him. But he doesn’t want their comfort right now.

From the beach, the sunset is beautiful, its deep purples and pinks reflected in the waves of the oceans. Bubbles drift lazily across the sky, and Barry watches it. He hasn’t been to the beach at sunset, in a while. He usually only makes it once it’s already night.

The last time he was here at sunset…was when he met Lup.

And she loved sunrises. The beauty of them, the proof that morning was here, yet again; to know there was warmth in the sunbeams as they crested over the horizon, coolness in the early morning breeze. To see color and softness and newness.

But this…this is a sunset. Pretty, yes, in its own way, but the end. The fall. Sure, the sun would rise again, bring about the sunrise, but what’s the point? What’s the point in beauty if Lup isn’t here to marvel at it with him?

And she was…he walks over to the spot he first found her passed out, just some unremarkable rocks. He didn’t know, then, that meeting her would be the start of so many adventures.

When they saved Angus, at Mt. Bristle. Their exploration of Waterfall Cave, and Fogbound Lake. The view at Fogbound Lake—how small he was compared to it. Jumping into quicksand because he trusted her, believed in what she felt. Meeting Taako in the future. Helping her when she was confused, and her repaying the favor. And then…at Temporal Tower…

Saving the world together.

All those memories he remembers so fondly. Memories of Lup.

Of…Lup.

“But you’re not…” he takes a deep breath, “you’re not here anymore, and…”

This is where they met. And he’s not ever going to see Lup again, and he won’t…she’s gone. She faded away. She’ll never…he’ll never…they’ll never…

Barry collapses into the sand, trying to hold himself together, but it’s so, so hard. Because everything with Lup is bittersweet, because she’s dead and gone and he’s expected to move on, to keep going with his life like he didn’t just lose his best friend? Like he didn’t just lose someone he loves? Like he didn’t just lose the Pokémon that is, to him, the most important in the world?

And the world being saved is supposed to make up for all of that?

“Barry!” Magnus calls, and Barry doesn’t want to move, so he doesn’t, just stays a heap in the sand, eye watering with tears. “You were gone so long, and I know it’s…Barry! Are you okay?”

He hasn’t cried for Lup, yet, has he? He hasn’t had a breakdown over her death?

He shudders, his body racked with sobs, his cape fluttering with his sorrow, and Magnus kneels down beside him, and doesn’t say anything. He just offers a shoulder to cry on.

Barry takes that lifeline, and for the first time in six months, doesn’t stop thinking about Lup.

* * *

Far away, across the seas, both the physical sea and the one of time, in the mostly rebuilt Temporal Tower, Dialga stares at the pedestal with its time gears.

“BARRY,” she says, as she thinks aloud, “WHEN YOU FIRST LEFT HERE…I FELT YOUR SORROW. I FELT IT AS YOU CLIMBED ONTO THE RAINBOW STONESHIP. I FELT IT AS YOU MADE IT TO TREASURE TOWN. I FELT IT IN THE MONTHS THAT PASSED. AND I FEEL IT EVEN NOW. AND IF THAT IS HOW YOU FEEL…AND IF LUP WERE TO SHARE IN THOSE FEELINGS…THEN I GRANT YOU A GIFT. THE WORLD NEEDS YOU BOTH. I ENTRUST YOU WITH THE FUTURE.”

She roars.

* * *

And back on the beach, there is a golden glow, pulsing, before it solidifies, and fades away in glowing orbs of light, and there…is Lup.

She blinks. She feels sand under her paws, and she feels wind in her fur, and she feels, and she feels!

“Lup?” Barry asks, when he turns to see her standing there. Lup doesn’t remember how to make her mouth move, but that doesn’t matter, because she doesn’t need words to say _this._

They run to each other, and they’re both crying, a lot, and Magnus is too, in the background, though he doesn’t exist for Lup or Barry.

And Barry says: “I love you.”

They collapse together on the sand, Lup’s head resting against Barry’s skull, a place she’d be glad to stay forever.

And Lup responds: “I know.”

She turns to look out at the setting sun, an echo of when they met, and she adds, “I love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh boy! it's been a wild ride but here it is...my love letter to both pmd eos and taz in its completion. if you take anything away from this, let it be: play pokemon mystery dungeon you won't regret it. it's truly one of the best pokemon games ever made. 
> 
> and a note about the song in the summary: the song itself doesn't actually relate to blup i just heard those lines while writing it and they really stuck out to me as the true core of their relationship, to the point where they kinda defined how i wrote the two of them. 
> 
> thank you so much to everyone who read and commented! i'll be back in a few weeks with the sequel, where i'll be adapting the second best pmd game: pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky special episode five: in the future of darkness. it's told from neither lup nor barry's pov, though both of them will be making appearances. what ever did happen to taako?


End file.
